INDIA STOCKS-Indian shares open lower on Fed worries; IT, financials fall

(Updates opening levels) BENGALURU, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Indian shares opened lower on Friday, tracking Wall Street after a fresh slate of U.S. economic data underscored bets that the Federal Reserve would keep interest rates higher for longer. The Nifty 50 index was down 0.28% at 17,983.30 as of 9:28 a.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex was lower by 0.35% at 61,095.09. Ten of the 13 major sectoral indexes declined. The heavyweight financials and information technology (IT) stocks lost 0.5% and 1.16%, respectively. The drop in the domestic equities comes after a slide in Wall Street as data showed a higher-than-expected rise in producer prices in January and a fall in jobless claims, signalling the Fed could stick with its high-rate regime. That could weigh on growth in the world's largest economy, from where Indian IT companies get a significant share of their revenue. HCL Technologies , Tech Mahindra and Wipro fell between 1.25% and 1.5% and were among the top losers on the Nifty index. On the flip side, Schaeffler India rose more than 4% after reporting a higher quarterly profit. Foreign investors are expected to help cap the losses, buoying the market as they have done in the past few sessions. Over the past five sessions, FIIs have bought a net 60.88 billion rupees ($736.3 million), reversing an extended selling trend earlier in the year.

($1 = 82.6830 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Savio D'Souza)

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