Indices today held the near five-month lows hit in the previous session as a U.S. banking crisis unnerved investors globally.
The Nifty 50 index was down 0.2% to 17,127, while the S&P BSE Sensex dropped 0.14% to 58,158.09 as of 09:20 a.m. IST.
The fallout from the collapse of U.S. lenders Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank widened overnight despite government efforts to shore up confidence, hitting bank shares globally.
Banks were among the top drags, falling 0.4% and 0.7%, respectively, even as analysts said the country's lenders were insulated from the U.S. banking crisis.
Meanwhile, India's annual retail inflation rate eased to 6.44% in February from 6.52% in January but stayed above the Reserve Bank of India's upper threshold for a second straight month.
Investors will now focus on the U.S. inflation data, due later in the day, for cues on the rate hike trajectory amid expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve could now become less hawkish given the banking crisis.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
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