BENGALURU, Aug 18 (Reuters) - Indian shares fell on Friday, dragged by IT stocks, tracking a slide in global equities on rate concerns in the United States and deflation and demand worries in China.
The Nifty 50 index was down 0.52% at 19,265.50 while the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.49% to 64,839.50 at 10:04 a.m. IST.
Both benchmarks have lost over 0.5% so far in the week. If losses hold, the benchmarks would have slid for the fourth consecutive week, the first such instance since May 2022.
IT firms, which earn a significant share of their revenue from the U.S., shed as much as 1.5% and was the top sectoral loser, on rising rate concerns in the world's largest economy.
Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and HCLTech were among the top Nifty 50 losers.
Asian markets were subdued due to worries over China's property sector after the embattled real estate firm Evergrande filed for bankruptcy protection in a U.S. bankruptcy court.
Analysts added that a basket of worries, such as the depreciating Indian rupee currency, rising domestic inflation, moderation in foreign inflows, China slowdown and U.S. rate worries, could prompt further profit-taking in the markets.
"Investors should maintain focus on stock selection and risk management until the tone in global markets changes," said Ajit Mishra, senior vice president - technical research at Religare Broking.
Shares of Adani Power, Adani Energy Solutions and Adani Green rose between 3% and 5% on a report that Abu Dhabi National Energy Company PJSC, known as TAQA, is mulling an investment of up to $2.5 billion in the conglomerate's power businesses.
AU Small Finance Bank climbed 2.05% after domestic brokerage Motilal Oswal upgraded the stock to "buy" from "neutral", citing a potential uptick in earnings from fiscal 2025.
(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran and Manvi Pant in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Janane Venkatraman)
