Indian shares slip further on profit-taking, hawkish Fed

BENGALURU, Nov 19 (Reuters): Indian shares fell for the second session in a row on Friday as investors booked profit after recent gains, especially as yet another US Federal Reserve official doused hopes of less aggressive monetary policy.
The benchmark S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.42 per cent to 61,489.95 and NSE Nifty 50 index dropped 0.47 per cent to 18,258.20 as of 0524 GMT. They are down about 0.4 per cent for the week.
Both indexes had gained more than 2 per cent in the wake of relatively soft US inflation data last week, which had rekindled bets for smaller rate hikes.
But they have dropped about 0.75 per cent in the past two sessions as an increasing number of Fed officials fired warning shots on interest rates.
"Indian markets are in the overbought zone. Geopolitical tensions and the Fed again being on the hawkish mode are keeping Asian markets under pressure and Indian markets under profit-taking zone," said Prashanth Tapse, vice president of research at Mehta Equities.
With corporate earnings mostly done, the markets will be trading sideways until the next Fed rate decision in early December, Tapse said.