Indian shares set for muted start, tracking Asian peers

Nov 28 (Reuters) - Indian shares are set to open little changed on Thursday, tracking other Asian peers on worries over U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's policies, and as uncertainty over U.S. rate cut trajectory resurfaced.

The Gift Nifty futures were trading at 24,336, as of 08:31 a.m. IST, indicating that the benchmark Nifty 50 will open near Wednesday's close of 24,274.9.

The Adani group stocks will continue to remain in focus after the group clarified that its key executives were not charged with violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in last week's indictment.

The conglomerate's stocks gained about $14 billion on Wednesday, leading domestic benchmarks 0.3% higher, after losing nearly $34 billion since the indictment till Tuesday .

Other Asian markets traded lower, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index shedding 0.25%.

Overnight, U.S. inflation data showed consumer spending increased in October, signaling worries that the future rate cut trajectory is going to be slower than expected.

A slowdown in the U.S. interest rate cuts will directly impact the spending environment and affect sectors like information technology and pharma in India, which have significant exposure to the U.S. market.

Concerns over the potential impact of the incoming U.S. administration's policies, including tariff threats, also weighed.

The benchmark Nifty 50 has traded in a narrow 200-point range in the last two sessions, with analysts expecting further consolidation ahead of monthly derivatives series expiry on Thursday.

Foreign institutional investors remained buyers of Indian shares for the third straight session on Wednesday, while domestic institutional investors snapped a two-session selling streak.

STOCKS TO WATCH

** NBCC (India) signs pact with HUDCO for the development of land parcel in Noida, for a project cost of 6 billion rupees.

** KEC International secures orders worth 17.04 billion rupees ($202 million) from Power Grid.

** Sonata Software wins multi-million dollar modernization deal in Australia. ($1 = 84.4100 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Sumana Nandy)