Indian shares fall ahead of blue-chip earnings, Axis Bank slips

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian shares slipped on Tuesday ahead of a raft of blue-chip earnings, led by declines in technology stocks as investors braced for a likely big U.S. interest rate hike this week.

The NSE Nifty 50 index was down 0.51% at 16,545.6, as of 0353 GMT, while the S&P BSE Sensex slipped 0.49% to 55,493.31.

Stocks in Asia were on tenterhooks as markets awaited a likely 75-basis-point Federal Reserve interest rate increase later this week amid surging inflation, while a profit warning from U.S. retailer Walmart dampened sentiment. [MKTS/GLOB]

In Mumbai, private lender Axis Bank slid 1.9% despite a beat on quarterly profit, as analysts flagged soft loan growth.

The Nifty IT index declined the most among sub-indexes, slipping up to 1.4%.

Helping cut losses on the Nifty 50 was a 3.7% rise in non-bank lender Bajaj Finserv on plans to issue bonus shares and split its stock.

Nifty 50 components Bajaj Auto, Asian Paints and Larsen & Toubro will report their results later in the day.

(Reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)