BENGALURU, April 22 Reuters Indian shares closed over 1 lower on Friday to log losses for a second straight week, with declines seen across the board, as global sentiment soured after the U.S. Federal Reserve hinted at an increasingly aggressive rate hike.
The NSE Nifty 50 index was down 1.27 at 17,171.95 at close, with all of its major subindexes in the negative territory. The SP BSE Sensex fell 1.23 to 57,197.15.
Both indexes had added over 1 in the previous session on the back of a rally by India39;s most valuable company Reliance Industries. The oiltoretail conglomerate snapped its threeday streak of gains to close 0.84 down.
World stocks fell to fiveweek lows as investors fretted about rate hikes in the United States and the euro zone.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell said on Thursday a halfpoint rate hike will be on the table when the central bank meets in May, and it would be appropriate to be moving a little more quickly.
Thursday39;s gains have been erased on the back of renewed fears of a faster rate hike as Fed meets next in May, said Anand James, chief market strategist at Geojit Financial Services.
We might have come out of fear psychosis with regards to the Ukraine situation, but concerns are very much there and these two factors coupled with pressure from rising commodity prices is affecting markets negatively, James added.
UBS on Friday cut India39;s 202223 economic growth forecast by 70 basis points to 7, on slowing global growth due to high commodity…