BENGALURU, June 15 (Reuters) - India's main indexes ended
lower on Wednesday, dragged down by energy and metals sectors,
with investors eyeing the U.S. Federal Reserve's rate hike
decision later in the day.
The NSE Nifty 50 index closed down 0.25% at
15,692.15, while the BSE index ended 0.3% lower at
52,541.39.
Analysts largely expect a 50-basis-point hike at the Fed's
meeting, but the possibility of a 75-bp raise has also grown
after Friday's higher-than-expected consumer price index (CPI)
data for May.
The spotlight on the U.S. central bank's decision comes
after the Reserve Bank of India last week raised its key
interest rate by 50 basis points as widely expected, in a bid to
cool high inflation in Asia's third-largest economy.
The country's wholesale inflation for May surged 15.88% in
May, while retail inflation eased to 7.04%, data showed earlier
this week.
Among individual sectors and shares, the Nifty energy index
dropped 1.2%, with Oil and Natural Gas Corp
down about 3% while NTPC Ltd shed 2.2%.
"People are exiting their profitable trades and with oil
prices already moving up, the energy sector stocks are down
today due to profit-booking," said Siddharth Khemka, head of
retail research, Motilal Oswal.
The Nifty metal index dropped 0.7%, pulled lower
by a 3.7% drop in Tata Steel.
Network18 Media and Investments rose 2.4% 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 1.8% 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 Uttaresh.V
and Anil D'Silva)