REFILE-BUZZ-Indian benchmarks muted on caution over US policy uncertainty, earnings worries

Adds dropped word in analyst quote in 3rd bullet

** India's benchmark indexes NSE Nifty 50 .NSEI and BSE Sensex .BSESN trade flat on caution over uncertainty about U.S. President Donald Trump's plans for India and worries about domestic corporate earnings

** Both Nifty and Sensex hit their lowest since early June 2024 in the previous session

** "The appetite for buying domestic equities among FIIs will remain low unless there are signs of strong recovery in corporate earnings and economic growth," says Kunal Vora, head of India equity research at BNP Paribas

** Barring IT .NIFTYIT, which is up 1.25%, all the other 12 major sectors decline on the day

** The broader, more domestically focussed smallcaps .NIFSMCP100 and midcaps .NIFMDCP100 fall about 2.5% each

** The two are down 9.5% and 8.1% in January so far, respectively, underperforming Nifty 50, which is down 2.6%

** This is due to costly valuations and worries over slowdown in domestic economy, analysts say

** Among individual stocks, India Cements ICMN.NS tumbles 11.4% after Q3 loss widens

** Life insurer ICICI Prudential ICIR.NS drops 8% after posting contraction in margins in Q3

(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru)

((bharath.rajeswaran@thomsonreuters.com; +91 9769003463;))