India shares down for 6th day; industrial data eyed

BANGALORE (Reuters) - Indian shares fell on Monday morning, extending their losing streak into a sixth session as surging inflation, oil and commodity prices weighed on investor sentiment.

Analysts said investors were also cautious ahead of data due around noon), which is likely to show industrial output in March grew an annual 6.2 percent, slowing abruptly from the previous month as tight monetary policy continued to hurt demand.

Shares in Reliance Industries, India's top listed firm, fell 1.2 percent to 2,498 rupees, and No. 2 lender ICICI Bank dropped 0.9 percent to 866 rupees. The two stocks account for a quarter of the main index.

At 10:54 a.m., the 30-share BSE index was down 0.9 percent, or 151 points, at 16,586.07, with 21 components falling. It started 0.6 percent lower and dropped as much as 1.1 percent to its lowest since mid-April.

"The global markets are not supportive today," said Neeraj Dewan, director at Quantum Securities. "Pessimism is still there in the market because of the global economic uncertainty and people are holding back their buying decisions."

The index fell 4.9 percent last week and is off about 22 percent from its record high in January.

Bharti Airtel, which said last week it was in exploratory talks with South African mobile operator MTN Group that may or may not lead to an acquisition deal, was down 0.5 percent at 837.80 rupees.

Singapore Telecommunications, which owns 30.5 percent of Bharti, was actively involved in the takeover talks between India's top mobile firm and MTN, a source told Reuters.

Brokerage India Infoline said the markets could see some recovery if the industrial production numbers were better than expected, but it advised clients to book gains on every rise.