Jan 13 (Reuters) - Australia shares are expected to have a muted start on Thursday, with resource-reliant stocks to likely gain on strong commodity prices, offsetting possible investor sell-off on fears over the impact to economic recovery from the surge in domestic COVID-19 cases. The local share price index futures were largely unchanged, down 0.04%, a 91.9-point discount to the underlying S&P/ASX 200 index (.AXJO) close. The benchmark had added 0.7% on Wednesday. New Zealand"s benchmark S&P/NZX 50 index (.NZ50) added about 0.2% to 12,828.80 points in early trade.