sensex
A man looks at a screen across a road displaying the Sensex on the facade of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) building in Mumbai, India. REUTERS

Indian shares retreated from record levels in early session on Tuesday as realty, auto, healthcare and metal stocks fell as investors booked profits.

At 0540 GMT, the S&P BSE Sensex gained 0.03 percent at 32,643 while the broader NSE Nifty rose 0.13 percent to 10,244. Sensex touched a record high of 32,687.32 points while 50-stock Nifty index touched its life-time high of 10,242.95 earlier in the previous session.

Among the top Sensex gainers: Bharti Airtel rose 1.2 percent, Asian Paints added 1.3 percent, State Bank of India gained 0.9 percent while Bajaj Auto advanced 0.8 percent.

Top losers were Tata Motors lost 0.8 percent, Mahindra and Mahindra fell 0.6 percent, Infosys shed 0.5 percent while ONGC dropped 0.4 percent.

Persistent Systems rose 2 percent after the company reported better then expected earnings for September quarter.

Visa Steel jumped 15 percent after the central bank raised foreign investment limit in the company to 74 percent.

Sasken Technologies jumped 4 percent after the company reported 55 percent increase in its net profit in September quarter.

Wipro was little changed ahead of its September quarter earnings.

Market breadth was in the favour of gainers, with about 2 stocks advancing to every 1 stock that declined.

Asian equities gained but sentiment remained muted as concerns about North Korea reemerged.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.1 percent having gained 10 of the past 12 sessions.

North Korea warned that a nuclear war could "break out any moment," sparking a pullback in the region's markets -- one of a number of geopolitical risks, along with the Brexit and Catalan-secession impasses.