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Asian stock markets were tentative on Tuesday as they braced for a run of policy announcements from the world's major central banks this week, with all eyes on the Bank of Japan's meeting later in the day after it stunned markets in January by adopting negative rates.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS dipped 0.1 percent in early trade, but still near 2-1/2-month highs touched on Monday. It was dragged down by a 0.4 percent fall in resource-heavy Australian shares following a drop in oil and commodity prices.

Japan's Nikkei .N225 tacked on 0.1 percent after hitting a six-week high on Monday.

Wall Street shares were narrowly mixed. The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI advanced 0.09 percent, while the S&P 500 .SPX lost 0.13 percent.

With the global economy slowing and many countries facing deflationary pressures, investors' attention was squarely on policy decisions from the world's major central banks.

The Bank of Japan kicks off its meeting on Tuesday, followed by the U.S. Federal Reserve on Wednesday and the Bank of England and the Swiss National Bank on Thursday.

Reference: Reuters, MKS Group