Indian shares up on crude oil windfall tax cut; FPI selling caps gains

Indian shares were higher in early trade on Tuesday, lifted by oil and gas stocks after the federal government cut a windfall tax on crude oil, though gains were capped by an ongoing selling streak by foreign investors.

The Nifty 50 index NIFTY was up 0.32% at 17,952.85 as of 9:28 a.m. IST, while the S&P BSE Sensex SENSEX rose 0.38% to 60,319.31.

Oil and gas stocks (.NIFOILGAS) were up as much as 0.53% after the country, a major consumer and importer of oil, cut its windfall tax on crude oil and exports of aviation turbine fuel and diesel.

Shares of Reliance Industries RELIANCE1!, Oil India Ltd OIL Chennai Petroleum Corp CHENNPETRO and Mangalore Refinery And Petrochemicals MRPL climbed between 0.5% and 4.4%.

However, those gains were capped on relentless outflows of funds from foreign investors.

Data showed foreign institutional investors extended their selling streak for the seventeenth day in a row - the longest such streak in six months - offloading 7.51 billion rupees ($92.00 million) worth of equities on a net basis on Monday.

In broader markets, the MSCI's gauge of Asia Pacific stocks outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) was down 0.51%.

($1 = 81.6280 Indian rupees)