(Updates for market close)

By Hritam Mukherjee and Kashish Tandon

Dec 17 (Reuters) - Indian shares slipped on Tuesday, on

across-the-board selling as investors braced for the Federal

Reserve's monetary policy meeting for clues on its rate cut path

next year.

The NSE Nifty 50 fell 1.35% to 24,336 points as of

3:30 p.m. IST, while the BSE Sensex declined 1.3% to

80,684.45.

All sectoral indexes apart from media fell. The

more domestically-focussed smallcaps and midcaps

declined 0.7% and 0.8%, respectively.

The Indian rupee weakened to its lifetime low.

Two analysts said foreign investors likely sold stocks,

after data showed India's trade deficit widened to a record

level in November.

While a quarter-point rate cut at the end of Fed's two-day

meeting on Wednesday is widely expected and priced in, markets

are bracing for the central bank to scale back its easing in

2025 in anticipation of higher inflation under the Donald Trump

administration.

Indian market sentiment was bogged down by selling pressure

as foreign investors waited for clues on further monetary policy

easing by Fed on Wednesday, Sunny Agrawal, head of fundamental

equity research at SBICaps Securities, said.

Financials, the heaviest sector on the Nifty 50,

dropped 1.44%, dragged by a 1.7% fall in HDFC Bank

after the private lender received a regulatory warning alleging

non-compliance with provisions for disclosures.

Reliance Industries - another Nifty heavyweight -

slipped 1.8%, dragging the energy index 1.6% lower.

IT firms, which get a bulk of their revenue from

the U.S., dropped 0.5%.

Foreign investors net sold Indian shares worth 2.79 billion

rupees ($32.87 million) on Monday. Data for Tuesday are expected

later in the day.

Monetary easing in the United States typically helps

emerging market assets, such as Indian equities, as they boost

foreign inflows.

Among individual stocks, Zomato ended about 1%

higher after brokerage Nuvama said it expects the food delivery

platform to see inflows of nearly $513 million when it gets

added to the BSE Sensex on Dec. 23.

($1 = 84.8870 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Hritam Mukherjee and Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru;

Editing by Sumana Nandy, Sonia Cheema and Mrigank Dhaniwala)