Indian shares extend decline on hawkish cenbanks; Adani stocks tumble

BENGALURU, June 23 (Reuters) - Indian shares added to early losses on Friday as hawkish central banks soured risk appetite and domestic benchmarks began consolidating, while Adani Group stocks tumbled after a report of U.S. attorney inquiries to investors holding large stakes.

The blue-chip Nifty (.NSEI) index fell 0.31% to 18,713.85 as of 10:44 a.m. IST, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) slipped 0.17% to 63,131.17.

Including Fridays losses so far, the indexes have declined over 0.5% each this week, and are on track to a snap four-week winning streak if the trends hold.

\“The Niftys resistance levels are around 18,700-18,880 so we are seeing a little bit of consolidation here,\” said Samrat Dasgupta, chief executive at Esquire Capital Investment Advisors.

\“The index has good support around the 18,400-18,500 levels and there, we may be seeing opportunities to start buying again.\”

The Sensex hit new record highs in each of the last two sessions, while the Nifty 50 came within one point of its all-time high on Thursday before witnessing selling pressure at near-record levels.

\“At these levels, investors should wait on the sidelines and wait for a dip because most of the stocks are really stretched in terms of valuations,\” he said, adding that there will likely be a corrective market for the next couple of weeks before June-quarter corporate earnings kick off.

All 13 indexes declined with the high-weightage IT (.NIFTYIT) losing 0.9% after Accenture on Thursday signalled a continued cutback on IT spending by clients and forecast quarterly revenue below Wall Street estimates.

Metal stocks (.NIFTYMET) fell 1.6% over fears of weak demand for commodities as global growth concerns from further monetary tightening remained following hawkish comments from the central banks.

Adani Group companies declined between 2% to 5% after Bloomberg News reported that the U.S. Attorneys Office in Brooklyn, New York, had sent inquiries in recent months to investors with large holdings in Adani firms.