Nifty retreats after six-day rally; global cenbanks in focus

REUTERS - Nifty retreated from a 10-month high on Tuesday and looked set to snap six sessions of gains, as investors paused ahead of major central banks announcements this week, including the minutes of the U.S. Federal Reserve meeting in June.

Indian shares have rallied despite the Brexit vote given the optimism about the domestic economy and expectations that central banks, including the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan, will expand their monetary easing.

Still, India won't be entirely immune, an analyst warned, pointing to higher downside risks to earnings in the technology sector and to broader exports.

"For six days, we had a bull run so there has to be a breather after that," said U.R. Bhat, managing director of Dalton Capital, a unit of U.K. investment management firm Dalton Strategic Partnership.

The Nifty was down 0.37 percent at 8,339.75 as of 0740 GMT, after rising nearly 3.5 percent in the past six sessions and hitting its highest since Aug. 20, 2015 on Monday.

The Sensex fell 0.32 percent to 27,188.76.

Tata Motors Ltd dropped as much as 2.11 percent after Monday's near 3 percent gain while state-owned gas producer GAIL fell as much as 2.28 percent after hitting a one-year high in the previous session.

Meanwhile, fertilizer makers such as Coromandel International and Zuari Agro Chemicals fell 10 percent and 2.6 percent respectively, following the government's decision on Monday to cut retail prices of non-urea fertilisers.

Among the gainers, infrastructure company Jaiprakash Associates surged as much as 26.37 percent after its board approved a deal to sell cement plants to UltraTech at a slightly higher value.

Shares of microfinance lender Ujjivan Financial Services gained as much as 2.31 percent after rating agencies CARE and ICRA upgraded their credit ratings for various instruments of the company.

(Reporting by Aastha Agnihotri in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)