Sensex rises nearly 1 percent; GST meet in focus

REUTERS - Indian shares bounced back from the previous session's multi-month lows to trade nearly 1 percent higher on Tuesday, helped by short-covering in stocks such as Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd and Tata Steel Ltd , while broader sentiment was underpinned by positive global cues.

Asian stocks extended gains, with MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan up 1.2 percent, pulled higher by financials and a rebound in oil prices.

Back home, investors now await a government meeting on the goods and services tax (GST) for clarity on rates. The three-day meeting of the GST Council, comprising federal and state finance ministers, will decide the main tax rate and those for different sectors.

 

"I think markets today are drawing comfort from global markets, which are positive. The GST outcome is not expected before today evening or tomorrow, so it's the global cues that are supporting for now," said Neeraj Dewan, director at Quantum Securities.

The benchmark BSE Sensex was 0.82 percent higher at 27,765.45 as of 0549 GMT after posting its lowest close since July 8 in the previous session.

The broader NSE Nifty was up 0.78 percent at 8,587.15 after posting its lowest close since July 21 on Monday.

Among the gainers, Tata Steel rose 2.5 percent after falling nearly 2 percent in the last three sessions, while Zee Entertainment gained 2.2 percent after shedding 12 percent in the previous four sessions.

Housing Development Finance Corp was up 2.3 percent after declining about 9 percent in the last seven sessions.

Logistics companies such as Gati Ltd and Allcargo Logistics Ltd rose 3.4 percent and 2.1 percent respectively, ahead of the GST Council meeting.

Shriram EPC jumped 12.2 percent after the engineering services company said it got an order worth over 610 million rupees ($9.16 million) from the Karnataka Water Authority.

But Zensar Technologies dropped 2.2 percent after its September-quarter profit slumped nearly 41 percent.

($1 = 66.5919 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Aastha Agnihotri in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)