Rebounding autos drive India shares up 0.4 pct

* Investors enter market after 5.6 pct fall over 3 days

* M&M, Maruti, Tata Motors gain after recent drop

* Poor rains, mixed overseas mkts, rich valuations weigh

* HDFC, Jaiprakash Associates among major losers
(Recasts, adds closing prices, analyst comments, details,
European markets performance)

By Pratish Narayanan

MUMBAI, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Indian shares nosed up 0.4
percent on Tuesday, led by automakers Mahindra & Mahindra
(MAHM.BO), Tata Motors (TAMO.BO) and Maruti Suzuki (MRTI.BO)
after the market shed 5.6 percent over the past three sessions.

But worries that a shortfall in crucial monsoon rains will
hit economic growth, concerns over pricey stocks and mixed
overseas markets kept investors wary.

Top utility vehicle maker Mahindra & Mahindra rebounded 3.6
percent to 785 rupees after dropping 17.6 percent over the past
three sessions.

Leading carmaker Maruti Suzuki rose 3.2 percent to 1,291.85
rupees, and No. 1 vehicle maker Tata Motors advanced 6.8
percent to 428.25 rupees, after easing 13.1 percent and 11
percent, respectively, since Thursday.

Automobile shares have been the second best performer this
year, powered by higher sales for six months in a row and
unexpectedly strong earnings in the June quarter on lower
commodity prices. For a BUY OR SELL on auto stocks, see
[ID:nBOM501456]

Energy giant Reliance Industries (RELI.BO), India's biggest
listed firm with the most weight in the main index, gained 0.7
percent to 1,999.45 rupees, after falling 4.3 percent over the
past three days.

Top telecoms firm Bharti Airtel (BRTI.BO), which is in
exclusive talks with South Africa's MTN (MTNJ.J), climbed 2.2
percent to 382.50 rupees, a day after falling 2.5 percent on
fears it may have to sweeten its bid for a deal to come
through.

But top mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corp
(HDFC.BO) fell 1.1 percent to 2,302.70 rupees, and engineering
and construction firm Jaiprakash Associates (JAIA.BO) slipped
2.6 percent to 208.50 rupees, limiting gains in the main index.

"This is just a temporary pull-back after the recent fall.
Even though there is buying at lower levels, it is accompanied
by heavy selling," said Arun Kejriwal, strategist at research
firm KRIS. "The market is not able to sustain its gains."

The 30-share BSE index .BSESN ended up 0.43 percent, or
64.82 points, at 15,074.59, with 19 stocks advancing. Trading
was choppy, with the benchmark rising as much as 1.4 percent
and falling almost 1 percent at one stage.

"There was a case for the market to find some support at
these levels, but one can't attribute too much of credibility
to this support," Gajendra Nagpal, chief executive of Unicon
Financial, said.

More than a quarter of India's districts are facing the
threat of drought and the sowing of crops nationally is 20
percent lower than in the previous year, Finance Minister
Pranab Mukherjee said on Tuesday.

While many of these districts are not major crop producers,
the minister's statement underscored growing government concern
that a weak monsoon could reduce output of crops like rice and
dampen economic growth already hit by a global recession.
[ID:nDEL489763] [ID:nMONSOON]

The BSE index had slid 3.25 percent last week after jumping
16 percent over the previous three weeks, when it rode a
worldwide equities rally on better-than-expected corporate
earnings and improving signs of a global economic recovery.

The index has leapt 87 percent from a 2009 low in early
March, and is up more than 56 percent this year after slumping
by more than half in 2008.

This has raised concerns about rich valuations, but
analysts say a rush of liquidity pouring into emerging markets
will help support the market in the near term. Foreigners have
bought shares worth $7.2 billion this year.

In the broader market, gainers led losers 1,366 to 1,291 on
below-average volume of 340.6 million shares.

The 50-share NSE index .NSEI rose 0.8 percent to
4,471.35.

Asian shares were higher, with Japan's Nikkei .N225
rising 0.6 percent, while MSCI's measure of other Asian markets
.MSCIAPJ was up 0.3 percent.

At 1052 GMT, the FTSEurofirst 300 .FTEU3 index of top
European shares was down 0.3 percent.