BENGALURU, June 1 Reuters Indian shares settled lower on Wednesday, dragged by pharma and technology stocks, while data showed that the country39;s economic growth slowed to the lowest in a year during the March quarter.

After seesawing between gains and losses for most of the session, the NSE Nifty 50 index ended 0.37 lower at 16,522.75 and the SP BSE Sensex finished down 0.33 at 55,381.17.

In the previous session, both indexes snapped three straight sessions of gains as a rally in technology stocks paused and banking stocks fell.

We are moving into a consolidation phase, investors might not be all that keen to push decisions or put money on the table ahead of India central bank39;s monetary policy decision next week, said Anand James, chief market strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

Most major Nifty subindexes settled lower, with the IT and pharma indexes leading declines to end down 1.4 and 1.3, respectively.

Bajaj Auto dropped 3.7 and was the top percentage loser on the Nifty 50 index. Early on Wednesday, the automaker posted a 1 rise in May sales from a year ago.

This pushed the Nifty auto subindex to snap a fourday rally and close down 0.2.

However, slight gains in financial stocks limited losses.

The Nifty finance index, bank index and PSU bank index, which tracks staterun banks, closed up between 0.16 and 0.7.

On Tuesday, government data showed India39;s gross domestic product grew 4.1 yearonyear in JanuaryMarch, slowed by weakening consumer demand…