BENGALURU, Feb 20 (Reuters) - Indian shares were muted on Tuesday, dragged by auto stocks following a recent rally, and tracking their Asian peers after China's efforts to support its property markets failed to excite investors.

The NSE Nifty 50 index was down 0.19% at 22,079.20 as of 10:04 a.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex lost 0.12% to 72,621.44.

Seven of the 13 major sectors declined, with the auto index, which had gained 5.5% over the last five sessions, losing 1% on the day.

The broader, more domestically-focussed small-caps advanced 0.2%, while mid-caps were relatively unchanged, outperforming the benchmarks.

Indian markets could see some consolidation in the next few sessions following the recent rally, said Deepak Jasani, head of retail research at HDFC Securities.

The Nifty 50 hit a record high for the sixth time in 2024 on Monday.

Both the Nifty 50 index and Sensex have gained in each of the previous five sessions, adding about 2.3% each, remaining resilient to fading hopes of an early Federal Reserve rate cut, which triggered a bout of foreign selling.

Asian markets fell 0.25%, as China's decision to

cut

its benchmark reference rate for mortgages in an attempt to revive its ailing property sector failed to bolster sentiment, leaving investors waiting for bigger stimulus measures.

Among individual stocks, Whirlpool of India dropped 3% as parent Whirlpool planned to sell a 24% stake in Indian unit this week at a 7.6% discount to Monday's closing price, Reuters reported.

Biocon lost 2.5% following a Jefferies downgrade, which flagged further weakness in earnings amid lack of new launches in the biosimilars segment.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises rose 5% after a report in the Economic Times

said

the company is making a final attempt to restart discussions with Japan's Sony Group to revive their $10 billion merger deal. Zee powered the media index 2% higher.

(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza, Sonia Cheema and Dhanya Ann Thoppil)