Indian stocks flat as global rate fears trigger foreign outflows

BENGALURU, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Indian benchmark indexes were muted on Tuesday as some domestic buying helped limit losses from a relentless selling by foreign funds over fears that global interest rates will stay higher for longer.

The Nifty 50 (.NSEI) was mostly flat at 19,687 points as of 10:26 a.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex was also unchanged at 66,022 points.

Both the benchmarks have fallen about 2.5% in the past one week after the U.S. Federal Reserve signalled last week that it was likely not done rising rates.

Markets are likely going to consolidate further after running up to all-time highs, ahead of the corporate results season in October, said Anita Gandhi, director at Arihant Capital Markets.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have been net sellers so far this month, offloading shares worth $1.36 billion, as of Sept. 22 after pouring in over $15 billion into Indian equities this year.

On Monday, foreign institutional investors sold 23.33 billion rupees worth of shares, while domestic investors bought 15.79 billion rupees worth of shares, as per provisional exchange data.

The more domestically focused small-caps (.NIFSMCP100) and mid-caps (.NIFMDCP100) were up 0.7% and 0.2%, respectively on Tuesday.

Rising U.S. treasury yields and inflation worries over surging crude prices and below average monsoon are some other concerns for Indian investors, analysts said.

The uptick in U.S. treasury yields is making investors jittery as FIIs continue to offload shares, Centrum Equity Research analysts said in a note.

Information technology stocks (.NIFTYIT) remained weak, falling 0.6%, on worries over demand uncertainties due to higher interest rate environment in the U.S., the key market for Indian IT companies.

Among individual stocks, Indian rice exporters surged on Tuesday on likely floor price cut for basmati rice exports.

Meanwhile, Eicher Motors (EICH.NS) rose 3.7% after Jefferies raised the target price of the company to 4,150 rupees.