Indian shares halt record rally as investors await key US data

Indian shares ended little changed near record highs on Tuesday, as investors awaited crucial data from the United States that is expected to decide the extent of a rate cut this month.

The NSE Nifty 50 and the BSE Sensex ended flat at 25,279.85 and 82,555.44 points, respectively.

The Nifty 50 rose 4.7 per cent in a thirteen-session rally, its longest ever, until Monday. Both benchmarks hit lifetime highs in the previous session.

The Nifty index will likely hover around record highs unless there is some positive news, Rahul Sharma, head of technical research at Mumbai-based investment advisory firm Equity99, said.

All eyes are now on US economic data, including US ISM manufacturing survey due later in the day and the jobs data on Friday, which should provide cues on the extent of a US rate cut at the Federal Reserve's Sept. 17-18 meeting.

Interest rate futures are predicting at least a 25-basis-point rate cut at the meeting. They now price in around 100 basis points of Fed cuts this year across three meetings, meaning they foresee a big 50 bps cut at one of them.

Interest rate cuts in the US tend to bring in more foreign fund inflows into emerging markets like India.

On the day, nine of the 13 major sectoral indexes were trading in the red, though the losses were marginal.

Heavyweight index Nifty energy dropped 0.7 per cent while financial services rose 0.8 per cent.

Raymond jumped 8.5 per cent after Bloomberg News reported that the company's fashion and retail unit, Raymond Lifestyle, will start trading in Mumbai on Thursday.

Matrimony.com surged 9.4 per cent on a proposal for buying back its shares.