BENGALURU: Indian shares were little changed on Friday, as a slide in high-weightage IT stocks offset optimism due to improved sentiment from the increased probability of a rate pause from the U.S. Federal Reserve.

The blue-chip Nifty 50 was down 0.01% at 18,632.90 as of 10:22 a.m. IST, while the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex fell 0.04% to 62,823.02.

Seven of the 13 major sectoral indexes advanced. Realty added 1% after a sharp slide in the previous session while IT fell 0.7%.

Wall Street and Asian equities rose as odds of a rate pause in the Fed's upcoming meeting on June 14 increased to 75% from 66%, after data showed weekly jobless claims hit over a 1-1/2-year high, signalling a cooling economy.

Investors are also awaiting key rate decisions from the European Central Bank and Bank of Japan next week.

India's central bank kept the repo rate at 6.50% for a second straight meeting on Thursday but indicated that monetary conditions will remain tight to bring inflation down to the 4% target.

Despite the profit-booking in interest-rate sensitive stocks after the RBI decision, analysts said the near-term outlook for the benchmark Nifty 50 remained positive.

"Expect Nifty to gradually move towards an all-time high, supported by lower volatility, stable macroeconomic fundamentals and consistent foreign buying," said Siddhartha Khemka, head - retail research at Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

Among individual stocks, One 97 Communications rose as much as 4.91% to a 10-month high after global brokerage CLSA reiterated "buy".

Aether Industries jumped over 7% to a record high after the specialty chemicals maker signed a license agreement with Saudi Aramco Technologies Company.

On the other hand, shares of Indian Energy Exchange tumbled 15%, after several analysts downgraded the stock, on market coupling concerns.

($1 = 82.4831 Indian Rupees) (Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Ann Thoppil, Sohini Goswami, and Janane Venkatraman)