Indian shares to get lift from Asia, upside limited

MUMBAI, May 15 (Reuters) - Indian shares may open higher on Thursday, lifted by gains in Asian markets as some worries about U.S. inflation eased, but concerns over signs of an local slowdown may limit the upside.

A smaller-than-expected rise in U.S. consumer prices in April helped stocks on Wall Street rise 0.5 percent on a view that Federal Reserve would be able to keep interest rates low.

At 0319 GMT, Tokyo .N225 was up 1 percent, Seoul .KS11 had gained 1.63 percent and Sydney was up 0.5 percent.

The 30-share BSE index .BSESN rose 1.35 percent to 16,978.35 on Wednesday, its highest close since May 8. It is about 16 percent down in 2008.

"The market may go up tracking global cues, but we do not see it sustaining gains in later trade," said V.K. Sharma, head of research at Anagram Stock Broking Ltd.

"Technology stocks are back in favour for the time being," he said.

Shares in software-services providers, which get more than half their revenue from the United States, have rallied as the rupee has fallen sharply this month. The rupee hit a 13-month low of 42.67 per dollar on Wednesday. ------------------MARKET SNAPSHOT@-GMT 0324 -------------------- INSTRUMENT LAST PCT CHG NET CHG S&P 500 .SPX 1,408.66 0.40% 5.62 USD/JPY JPY= 105 -0.04% -0.040 10-YR US TSY YLD US10YT=RR 3.9226 -- 0.002 SPOT GOLD XAU= $863.05 -0.07% -0.600 US CRUDE CLc1 $123.67 -0.44% -0.550 DOW JONES .DJI 12898.38 0.52% 66.20 ASIA ADRS 164.81 0.62% 1.02 -------------------------------------------------------------

FACTORS TO WATCH * For technical analysis double-click on www.reutersindia.net * Indian rupee market report [INR/] * Indian bond market report [IN/] * FOREX-Dollar near 2-mth high vs yen, eyes on equities [FRX/] * Oil falls below $124 on higher U.S. stocks, stronger dollar [O/R] * GLOBAL MARKETS-Asian stocks, dollar gain; Sony jumps 9 pct [MARKETS/AS] * US STOCKS- Benign inflation, strong results lift Wall St [.N] * For closing rates of Indian ADRs INADR

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