BENGALURU: Indian shares opened lower on Friday after an eight-day rally, dragged by auto stocks, while investors took a pause heading into the US payrolls data to gauge more signs of a shift in rate hike plans from the Federal Reserve.

The S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.33% to 63,074.58, as of 09:16 a.m. IST.

The NSE Nifty 50 index shed 0.3% to 18,756.45. Nifty Auto index declined nearly 1%.

Wall Street equities closed mostly lower overnight on Thursday as investors digested key economic data, while waiting for US non-farm payrolls data, scheduled to be released later in the day.

Asian markets also declined, with the MSCI Asia ex-Japan index shedding 0.74%.

Oil prices retreated from the session’s highs, after rising on a weak dollar and on hopes of improved fuel demand in China as the country eased COVID-19 restrictions in two major cities, ahead of the OPEC+ meeting on Sunday.

The broader indexes outperformed their larger peers with Nifty MidCap 100 and Nifty SmallCap 100 , rising 0.1%. Nifty Oil & Gas was the top sectoral gainer, rising 1%.

Indian shares rally for eighth day

Among individual stocks, Reliance Industries, ONGC , GAIL, Oil India, Chennai Petroleum, Mangalore Refineries, rose after the government reduced windfall tax on domestic crude by half to 4,900 rupees per tonne and levy on diesel exports to 6.5 rupees per litre.