BENGALURU, March 19 Reuters Indian shares fell on Tuesday, as TCS led a sharp slide in IT stocks, already pressured ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve39;s rate decision due on Wednesday, which could also determine the extent of foreign fund inflows into the market.

The bluechip NSE Nifty 50 index lost 0.82 to 21,873.25, while the BSE Sensex shed 0.74 to 72,208.59, as of 1040 a.m. IST.

Tata Consultancy Services sank about 3, the most on the Nifty, on Tata Sons39; plan to sell a 1.13 billion stake sale at a 3.7 discount.

TCS also weighed on the IT index, whose 1.85 slide was the most among the 13 major sectors.

The U.S. ratesensitive IT stocks have dropped 3.3 this week as expectations of a Fed rate cut have receded due to recent hotterthanexpected inflation data.

Asian markets were also down ahead of the Fed decision, holding their losses even as the Bank of Japan, as widely expected, ended eight years of negative interest rates.

The Fed39;s decision and commentary is important because the allocation of foreign portfolio investors to Indian markets will be dependent partially on the interest rate trajectory, said Anita Gandhi, director at Arihant Capital Markets.

Strong foreign inflows have helped the Indian markets power to record highs for the latter part of last year.

But that slowed recently due to concerns of overheated valuations, especially in the mid and smallcaps.

The smallcaps were down 0.7 on the day and the midcaps shed 0.9, continuing their decline…