Indian shares fell on Thursday after two straight days of strong gains, as banking shares retreated, while troubled Indian telecom operator Vodafone Idea tumbled 15% after its non-executive chairman stepped down.

By 9:18 am, the blue-chip NSE Nifty 50 index was mostly unchanged at 16,270 and the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.07% to 54,408.12.

The Nifty banking index, which rose over 2.3% in the previous session, was the top drag, down 0.5%.

Vodafone Idea dropped after billionaire industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla stepped down as the telecom operator’s non-executive chairman on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, U.S. Federal Reserve Vice Chair Richard Clarida — a major architect of the U.S. central bank’s new policy strategy — said in an overnight speech he felt the conditions for raising interest rates could be met by the end of 2022.

The speech comes at a time Indian markets are closely watching the country’s central bank policy outcome on Friday on cues for liquidity even as it is mostly expected to be stay put on rates.