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Indian shares are likely to open little changed on Wednesday as consolidation continues near record high levels, while a global rally, fuelled by optimism around likely U.S. rate cuts this year, fizzled out.

The Gift Nifty was trading at 22,046.50 as of 8:08 a.m. IST, indicating that the Nifty 50 will open near Tuesday's close of 22,004.70.

Asian markets declined at the open, with the MSCI ex-Japan shedding 0.2%.

Wall Street equities closed lower overnight, extending losses for the second session in a row.

They logged their best week in 2024 on Friday, aided by the Federal Reserve reiterating three rate cuts this year, easing some concerns of further delays in policy easing after recent hotter-than-expected U.S. inflation data. [MKTS/GLOB]

Domestic and other Asian equities also rallied to weekly gains on Friday after the Fed commentary on March 20.

India's blue-chip indexes Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex fell about 0.5% each on Tuesday, dragged by financials and information technology stocks.

Investors resorted to profit-taking due to lack of enthusiasm in a truncated week, said Prashant Tapse, senior vice president of research at Mehta Equities.

"Information technology stocks were at the receiving end on concerns that subdued global economy may lead to muted IT spending by big clients this year," Tapse added.

Since global bellwether Accenture's weak commentary on demand and client spending, the IT index has dropped about 3% in last two sessions.

Analysts expect domestic markets to be subdued and the benchmark Nifty 50 to hover around 22,000 levels in the next two sessions, ahead of the end of the financial year 2024.

Both the Nifty 50 and Sensex are on course to log fourth straight quarterly gains, adding about 27% and 23%, respectively, in fiscal 2024.

Foreign portfolio investors bought Indian shares worth 101.3 million rupees (about $1.2 million) on a net basis on Tuesday, while domestic institutional investors bought a net 50.24 billion rupees of stocks.

STOCKS TO WATCH:

** Power Grid Corporation of India: Company commissioned a capacity expansion project in the Southern region.

** Cipla, Sanofi India: The two drug makers announced exclusive distribution partnership to expand the reach of central nervous system (CNS) portfolio in India. Cipla will distribute six CNS products of Sanofi India.

** Central Depository Services: Standard Chartered Bank is likely to sell its entire 7.18% stake in the company via block deals, according to a CNBC-TV18 report.

** Shyam Metalics and Energy: Company's joint venture secured a letter of intent for composite license for an iron ore block in Maharashtra.

($1 = 83.3238 Indian rupees)