INDIA STOCKS-Indian shares fall on rate-hike worries ahead of Fed, RBI minutes

(Adds opening levels) By Bharath Rajeswaran BENGALURU, Feb 22 (Reuters) - Indian shares fell on Wednesday after strong economic data from the U.S. kept investors worried that central banks would have to keep raising interest rates, while markets waited for minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meet. The Nifty 50 index was down 0.81% at 17,682.95, while the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.78% at 60,200.24 as of 09:51 a.m. IST.

Twelve of the 13 major sectoral indexes fell, with high-weightage financials dropping 0.75% and information technology stocks losing nearly 1%, respectively.

All 10 constituents of the IT index logged losses.

Global markets fell after an unexpectedly strong reading of S&P Global's composite purchasing managers' index (PMI) showed that the U.S. economy was not cooling. Both the Fed and the Reserve Bank of India were due to release minutes of their latest policy meetings, giving investors a glimpse of their thinking regarding future rate-hike trajectories.

Separately, the National Stock Exchange extended trading hours for interest rate derivatives to 5 p.m. IST from Feb. 23, to better hedge risks with global equities.

In a discussion paper, India's markets regulator had said that longer trading hours helped market participants manage risks arising out of global information flow.
($1 = 82.8330 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman, Nivedita Bhattacharjee)

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