BENGALURU, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Indian shares opened lower on Thursday, after the U.S. Federal Reserve signalled that the interest rate hikes might continue for longer than expected.

The Nifty 50 index was down 0.11% at 18,640.55, as of 09:25 a.m. IST, and the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.14% to 62,584.77.

Among major sectoral indexes, the Nifty IT fell 0.6%, while the Nifty Bank and the Nifty Oil & Gas indexes eked out marginal gains.

Fed Chair Jerome Powell said that the U.S. central bank will maintain a "restrictive enough" policy stance to control inflation, and raised the short-term rate target by an expected 50 basis points.

U.S. central bankers see the policy rate, now in the 4.25%-4.5% range after Wednesday's 50-basis-point increase, rising to 5.1% by the end of next year, according to the median estimate in the Fed's quarterly summary of economic projections published at the end of its two-day meeting. That is a half percentage point higher than they forecast in September.

Wall Street equities slid overnight after the statement, with all the key indexes logging losses.

Asian markets declined, with the MSCI Asia ex Japan sliding 0.83%.

Among individual stocks, Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp shed 5% after the government said it will sell an up to 5% stake in the company. ($1 = 82.5320 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Eileen Soreng)