BENGALURU: Indian shares fell on Monday, weighed down by a decline in automobile stocks and Asian equities that weakened after a strong US jobs report strengthened the case for the Federal Reserve to persist with aggressive rate hikes.

The NSE Nifty 50 index, with all of its major sub-indexes in the negative territory, fell 1.24% to 17,100.50 as of 0348 GMT, and the S&P BSE Sensex declined 1.2% to 57,493.68.

Last week, both indexes registered their first weekly gain in four by rising over 1%.

In early trades, the Nifty auto index lost 1.6%.

Tata Motors Ltd was the top loser on the Nifty 50 index, falling 4%.

Indian shares close down ahead of US jobs data

US Federal Reserve officials have showed no intention of backing down from the most aggressive rate hike campaign in decades, emphasising that the inflation fight was ongoing.

Domestically, corporate earnings will be among the drivers for markets in the next few weeks, with IT service provider Tata Consultancy Services on Monday set to kick off earnings season when it reports quarterly results later in the day.

Meanwhile, a Reuters poll found India’s retail inflation accelerated to a five month high of 7.30% in September due to surging food prices, staying well above the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) upper tolerance band for a ninth month.

The data is due after market hours on Wednesday.

Among individual stock moves, IDBI Bank surged 11% after the government said on Friday it was looking to sell a 60.72% stake in the bank and invited expressions of interest.