Indian shares swung between gains and losses on Wednesday on caution ahead of the Federal Reserve monetary policy decision later in the day.
MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan stood little changed. Japan's Nikkei was flat. Shanghai lost 0.2 percent while Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 0.2 percent.
At a two-day meeting that began 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.
At 0615 GMT, the S&P BSE Sensex rose 0.07 percent at 32,426 while the broader NSE Nifty lost 0.04 percent to 10,143.
Among the top Sensex gainers: Dr. Reddy's advanced 2.4 percent, ONGC rose 2 percent, Reliance Industries gained 1.5 percent while Larsen and Toubro was up 1.3 percent.
Laggards included Coal India down 1.7 percent, Tata Motors fell 1.8 percent, Hero MotoCorp dropped 2 percent while Hindustan Unilever lost 1.1 percent.
Larsen and Toubro gained after the engineering firm announced that it has received a contract worth Rs 1,700 crore from Kuwait Oil Co.
Strides Shasun rose 2.5 percent after the company said it got U.S. drug regulator's approval for Omega3 generic.
Tata Steel advanced 1.4 percent after the miner entered into a joint venture with Germany's Thyssenkrupp to merge their European steel businesses.
Market breadth was in the favour of gainers, with about 2 stocks advancing to every 1 stock that declined.
