Indian shares ended little changed on Tuesday as investors braced for caution ahead of the Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.1 percent after wobbling between positive and negative territory for much of the morning.
At a two-day meeting beginning later on Tuesday, the Fed is expected to take another step toward policy normalization and announce plans to begin unwinding its $4.2 trillion portfolio of Treasuries and mortgage-backed securities, Reuters reported.
The S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.07 percent at 32,402 while the broader NSE Nifty lost 0.05 percent to 10,147.
Among the top Sensex gainers: Tata Motors advanced 5 percent, Kotak Mahindra Bank jumped 1.8 percent, Cipla gained 0.7 percent while NTPC gained 0.6 percent.
Laggards included Coal India down 2.5 percent, Sun Pharma fell 1.2 percent, HDFC dropped 0.9 percent while State Bank of India lost 0.8 percent.
Jaiprakash Associates slumped 3.2 percent on media reports Supreme Court directed the company to deposit Rs 2,000 crore with it in connection with insolvency proceedings involving Jaypee Infratech.
However, Tata group companies gained after a series of block deals, in which a combined 86 million shares changed hands. Tata Motors jumped 5 percent while Tata Chemicals and Tata Global Beverages gained 2.4 percent and 1.5 percent, respectively.
Tata Sons is planning to increase its stake in carmaker Tata Motors, Bloomberg reported citing a source with knowledge of the matter.
Market breadth was in the favour of gainers, with about 2 stocks advancing to every 1 stock that declined.
