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Indian shares shed early gains on Wednesday, with losses across the board as investors took profits in the backdrop of a broader risk-averse sentiment spawned by rising U.S.-China tensions.

Investors are awaiting the outcome of Reserve Bank of India's (RBI) monetary policy meeting expected later this week, with the three-day meeting set to begin on Wednesday.

The NSE Nifty 50 index was down 0.37% at 17,280.75, as of 0456 GMT, and the S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.28% to 57,975.98. The benchmark indexes looked set to snap a five-day run of gains.

With inflation at multi-year highs, the RBI's monetary policy committee is seen raising rates on Friday, though the views on the quantum of increase were split wide between 25 basis points and 50 basis points, a Reuters poll of economists showed.

"The risk-off mood globally is largely related to the rising tensions between China and U.S. because of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan," said Saurabh Jain, assistant vice-president, research, at SMC Global Securities,

The market had gone up in the past few days, so some profit taking was expected, Jain added.

In domestic trading, with most of major Nifty sub-indexes trading in the negative, the IT sub-index was the sole gainer, advancing 0.89%.

Weighing on the Nifty 50 were Tata Motors , and Maruti Suzuki India , each falling 1.6%. Nifty's auto index <.NIFTYAUTO> was among the worst performers, declining 1.22%.

Among other individual stock moves, Zomato Ltd fell as much as 6.8% on reports that the U.S. ride-hailing giant Uber Technologies likely planned to sell its stake in the food delivery firm.