INDIA STOCKS-Indian shares set to rise on moderately hawkish Fed mins

By Bharath Rajeswaran BENGALURU, Feb 23 (Reuters) - Indian shares are set to rise on Thursday after the minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve's latest monetary policy meeting hinted at a potential shift to moderation in rate hikes. India's NSE stock futures listed on the Singapore exchange were up 0.30% at 17,609 as of 8:04 a.m. IST. The Fed minutes indicated that a majority of the central bank members favoured smaller rate hikes in subsequent meetings. U.S. markets, however, declined as a slew of macroeconomic data since the last policy meeting kept fears of an aggressive rate hike path intact. Asian markets advanced, with the MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rising 0.37%. The minutes of the monetary policy committee meeting of the Reserve Bank of India, on the other hand, indicated that India's central bank remained committed to its fight against inflation, with a majority of the members reiterating that it would be premature to lower the guard.

Foreign institutional investors (FII) offloaded a net 5.80 billion rupees ($70.05 million) worth of equities on Wednesday while domestic investors purchased a net 3.72 billion rupees worth of Indian shares. Indian shares fell for the fourth session in a row on Wednesday, with the benchmark Nifty 50 settling at a four-month low and signalling a bearish bias.

The National Stock Exchange's extension of trading hours for interest rate derivatives to 5 p.m. IST from 3:30 p.m. IST, comes into effect from Thursday.

STOCKS TO WATCH

** Mahindra CIE : Co reports consolidated loss in December quarter, approves dividend of 2.50 rupees per share
** Biocon : Co raises $129 mln from Kotak Mahindra group's asset management arm to fund biosimilars deal.
** Lemon Tree : Co signs a license agreement for a 47-room property in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh.
** HG Infra Engineering : Co declared as lowest bidder for a project worth 5.35 bln rupees from Rail Vikas Nigam in Himachal Pradesh.
($1 = 82.8010 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman)

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Reuters

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INDIA STOCKS-Indian shares set to rise on moderately hawkish Fed mins

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