A man walks past the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai, India October 4, 2018. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas

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BENGALURU, Jan 20 (Reuters) – India’s blue-chip stock indexes saw hefty losses for a third straight session on Thursday as inflation and policy tightening fears continued to pressure technology stocks, while heavyweight Bajaj Finserv dropped after reporting a lower quarterly profit.

The blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index (.NSEI) ended 1.01% lower at 17,757 and the S&P BSE Sensex (.BSESN) fell 1.06% to 59,464.62, both registering their lowest closing level in two weeks.

The indexes have fallen nearly 4% from the three-month peaks touched earlier this week, with analysts saying that a correction was due ahead of India’s federal budget.

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The Nifty and Sensex are still up around 8% from the lows seen in December and around 4.5% off the record highs touched in October.

Reliance Industries (RELI.NS), India’s most valuable company, fell 1.8% ahead of its quarterly results due late on Friday.

IT majors Infosys (INFY.NS) and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS.NS) tumbled 2.3% each, dragging the Nifty IT index (.NIFTYIT) to its lowest level in a month, after the tech-heavy Nasdaq fell into a correction territory on Wednesday.

Nifty component Bajaj Finserv (BJFS.NS), a holding company for financial services businesses including non-bank lender Bajaj Finance (BJFN.NS), sank 4.5% to a more than two-week low after its quarterly net profit slipped.

Automaker Bajaj Auto (BAJA.NS) slid 3.7% on reporting a bigger-than-expected fall in profit.

Non-bank lender PTC India Financial services (PTCN.NS) saw its worst plunge in nearly seven years as it sank 18.5% after saying three of its independent directors resigned citing lapses in corporate governance. read more

Consumer goods giant Hindustan Unilever (HLL.NS) dropped 2.1% ahead of its quarterly results.

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Reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; editing by Uttaresh.V and Amy Caren Daniel

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/india/indian-shares-slip-third-day-ceat-bajaj-auto-drop-2022-01-20/