Indian shares tracked Asian peers lower on Wednesday, pulled down by losses in tech and financials, as investors worried that strong U.S. data meant the pace of interest rate hikes may not ease any time soon.

The NSE Nifty 50 index was down 0.44% at 17,577.55, as of 0458 GMT, while the S&P BSE Sensex slipped 0.48% to 58,914.98.

"We are tracking global risk-off sentiment, but the dip in Indian benchmarks doesn't look meaningful as the breadth of the market looks good," said Aishvarya Dadheech, a fund manager at Ambit Asset Management.

The Nifty Midcap 100 and the Nifty Smallcap 100 indexes were up 0.3%-0.6%.

Data overnight showed the U.S. services industry picking up in August, fuelling fears of the Fed pursuing steep interest rate hikes to tame inflation. That sent Wall Street and Asian stock markets lower.

"India has shown resilience and looks decoupled from larger markets like the U.S., with support from foreign investor inflows and better economic attributes, but I am very curious to see how long the decoupling can stay," Ambit Asset's Dadheech said.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan has shed over 20% this year up to last close, as against a 1.7% rise in the Nifty 50.

In Mumbai on Wednesday, the Nifty IT index and the Nifty Bank index fell about 1% each.

The Nifty FMCG index rose 0.6%, after shedding half a percent in the previous session.

Shree Cement was the best performer on the Nifty 50, rising as much as 3.9% in its biggest intraday jump since May 20.

Digital marketing company Brightcom Group slid 4.7% to a three-week low after it dropped a plans for an acquisition. (Reporting by Chris Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil)