Indian shares slip from record highs on rate hike concerns

BENGALURU, July 7 (Reuters) - Indian shares slid on Friday after rising to new record highs in the first hour of the trading session, tracking a fall in Asian peers on concerns of further monetary policy tightening by the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The Nifty 50 (.NSEI) index was down 0.65% at 19,369.80, while the S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) fell 0.64% to 65,361.67, as of 12:02 p.m. IST.

Both indexes rose more than 0.1% in the first hour of the session to hit record highs, before broad sectoral selling emerged.

Twelve of the 13 major sectoral indexes logged losses, with the high-weightage financials (.NIFTYFIN) and IT (.NIFTYIT) losing over 0.8% each.

Asian equities declined after data showed a rise in the U.S. private payrolls, stoking fresh fears of a prolonged high-interest regime and triggering a spike in bond yields across the world. Wall Street equities closed lower overnight.

Indias valuations may soon overextend after the recent rally, according to analysts at CLSA. The Nifty has risen nearly 12% in fiscal 2024 so far.

The global brokerage, in a note on Thursday, also added that investor sentiment - measured by the bull-bear index - has swung from an extremely bearish reading of 8.2% in March 2023 to an extremely bullish reading at 95.9% in early July.

While noting that the outlook for domestic markets remained positive, two analysts cautioned that rate hike fears in the U.S., escalating U.S.-China trade tensions, and concerns over Chinas economic recovery could trigger risk-off sentiment in the next few sessions.

Among individual stocks, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services (MMFS.NS) lost over 3% after BofA Securities downgraded to \“neutral\” from \“buy\”, citing high valuations and elevated operating costs.

On the other hand, Titan Company (TITN.NS) rose over 3% to hit a record high after it said in an update that it recorded a 20% year-on-year revenue growth in the June quarter.

Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Varun H K, Nivedita Bhattacharjee, and Janane Venkatraman

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