BENGALURU, Feb 21 Reuters Indian shares ended lower for the third day in a row on Tuesday, having spent the session in a narrowerthanusual trading range on caution ahead of the minutes from the U.S. Federal Reserve39;s meeting amid fears of a higherforlonger interest rate regime.

The Nifty 50 index fell 0.10 down at 17,826.70, while the SP BSE Sensex dipped 0.03 to 60,672.72. Both benchmarks opened higher before reversing course.

The Nifty traded in a 124points range, well below this month39;s daily average of around 195 points.

The minutes of the Fed39;s latest policy meeting are due on Wednesday and come as recent U.S. data  on inflation, retail sales and jobs have strengthened the case for further rate hikes, a view that two Fed officials recently advocated for.

With the kind of domestic, as well as global economic data coming in, we might see a selling in growth stocks and buying in value stocks, said Saurabh Jain, assistant vicepresident, research, SMC Global Securities.

Ten of the 13 sectoral indexes declined. The U.S. ratessensitive IT stocks fell 0.88, with nine of the 10 constituents in the red. Financials were little changed.

Jain said IT stocks, up 8.7 so far this year, were likely to be losing steam, with investors moving into financial shares.

The fast moving consumer goods index bucked the broader trend to add 0.11. Marico was the top gainer, rising over 2 after Citi said it expects volume growth of core brands to accelerate.

Siemens rose over 3…