Indian shares subdued ahead of Fed rate hike decision

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian shares were muted in early trade on Wednesday, with energy and metal stocks down, as global investors treaded cautiously in anticipation of aggressive rate hike actions by the U.S. Federal Reserve later in the day.

The NSE Nifty 50 index was down 0.2% at 15,698.4 by 0408 GMT, while the BSE index fell 0.2% to 52,602.4.

Analysts expect a 50-basis-point hike at the Fed meeting later in the day, but the possibility of a 75-bp raise has grown after Friday's higher-than-expected consumer price index (CPI) data for May.

India's central bank had last week raised the key interest rate by 50 basis points as widely expected, in a bid to cool persistently high inflation in Asia's third-largest economy.

India's wholesale inflation for May saw a 15.88% rise in May, while retail inflation eased to 7.04%, data showed earlier this week.

Network18 Media and Investments rose 2.3% after Viacom18, in which Network 18 owns a majority stake, won digital streaming rights for the Indian cricket league IPL from 2023 to 2027.

Shares of One97 Communications were up over 2% after the company's average monthly users on its PayTM super app rose 48% for two months ending May.

(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Shailesh Kuber)