Indian shares inch lower as tech stocks drag

A man walks out of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai, India, January 3 2020. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

BENGALURU, June 6 (Reuters) - Indian shares edged down on Monday dragged by technology stocks, while global investor mood turned cautious ahead of key U.S. economic growth data and central bank rate decisions in Europe and India this week.

The NSE Nifty 50 index (.NSEI) slipped 0.47% to 16,504.60, as of 0510 GMT, while the S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) fell 0.49% to 55,484.61. Both indexes were muted in the early minutes of the session and fell as much as 0.85%, before trimming some losses.

Last week Indian stock markets saw volatile moves, but the benchmark indexes still clocked their third straight week of advances with gains of around 1.5% each.

This week, investors in India await the outcome of the Monetary Policy Committee meeting and the Reserve Bank of India is expected to follow up its unscheduled repo rate hike in May with another move on June 8. read more

"There is nervousness in the market ahead of rate decision amid pain of high inflation," said Saurabh Jain, assistant vice president at SMC Securities.

"We are also seeing supersonic volatility and it's difficult for market participants to make up their mind with so many variables moving in both directions."

On Monday, stocks across the board lost ground – technology stocks (.NIFTYIT) led the pack with a 2.2% fall.

Metal stocks (.NIFTYMET) which slipped 1.5% to their lowest since May 31 in early trade, recovered and were last down 0.06%.

Auto stocks (.NIFTYAUTO) extended losses to a fourth session and slipped nearly 1% to their lowest since May 27.

Among the few gainers, Adani Transmission (ADAI.NS) rose 3.8%. The firm said it will buy Essar Power Transmission Co Ltd for an enterprise value of 19.13 billion rupees ($246.41 million).

Meanwhile, broader Asian markets steadied as U.S. stock futures made cautious gains ahead of U.S. inflation data later in the week, while the euro touched a seven-year top on the yen amid wagers of European Central Bank tightening.

($1 = 77.4300 Indian rupees)

Reporting by Chandini Monnappa in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber

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