BENGALURU, April 12 (Reuters) - Indian shares dropped on Friday, tracking Asian peers, dragged by financials as hot U.S. inflation data eroded hopes of early Federal Reserve rate cuts.

The NSE Nifty 50 was down 0.51% at 22,638.6 as of 10:26 a.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex shed 0.58% to 74,598.34.

Nine of the 13 major sectors logged losses. High weightage financials dropped 0.8%, after hot U.S. consumer price inflation data hurt expectations of a rate cut in June, as anticipated earlier.

The highest-weighted stock in the Nifty 50, HDFC Bank , dropped 1.3%, leading index losses. Non-banking finance company Shriram Financial fell 1.6% and was the third-biggest Nifty 50 loser by percentage.

Financials had risen in the previous six sessions, helped by positive quarterly updates from HDFC Bank and others, adding 2.68% over the period.

Asian markets declined on Friday, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index dropping 0.6%.

"Sticky U.S. inflation is a negative for all equity markets since it has reduced hopes of three rate cuts by the U.S. this year," said VK Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services.

While rising U.S. bond yields - a result of higher-for-longer Fed rate expectations - are negative for foreign inflows, Indian markets are likely to be resilient as they are driven mainly by domestic liquidity, Vijayakumar added.

Investors now await the March quarter results and commentary from Tata Consultancy Services, due after the closing bell on Friday. TCS shares were up 0.25%.

Also due after market close is India's consumer price inflation for March, which likely eased to a five-month low of 4.91% in March, according to economists polled by Reuters

Sun Pharma lost 2.8% and was the top Nifty 50 loser after the company's Dadra facility got an "official action indicated" status from the U.S. drug regulator.

Syngene International and Neuland Laboratories gained 4% and 6.5%, respectively, after Goldman Sachs initiated coverage of the stocks with "buy" ratings. (Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Janane Venkatraman and Sonia Cheema )