Indian share markets continued to witness buying momentum in the afternoon session after the GST Council had relaxed the return filing rules for businesses for the first two months of the rollout of the GST. Sentiments also remained upbeat on firm global cues.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 255 points, while the NSE Nifty finished up by 70 points. Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Mid Cap finished up by 0.1% & the S&P BSE Small Cap finished down by 0.1%. Gains were largely seen in bank stocks, metal stocks, and capital goods stocks.

Asian stock markets finished broadly higher today with shares in Hong Kong leading the region. The Hang Seng is up 1.16% while China's Shanghai Composite is up 0.68% and Japan's Nikkei 225 is up 0.62%. European markets are higher today with shares in France leading the region. The CAC 40 is up 0.96% while Germany's DAX is up 0.92% and London's FTSE 100 is up 0.65%.

The rupee was trading at Rs 64.38 against the US$ in the afternoon session. Oil prices were trading at US$ 45.06 at the time of writing.

In news from the economy, in a bid to boost Indian electronics and software manufacturing industry, the government will come out with a new policy for electronics and software production, as well as for data protection and will set up innovative zones for start-ups.

According to a leading financial daily, the Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad, exuded his confidence that India is well-positioned to become a US$ 1 trillion digital economy in next few years. The minister said that the government will be shortly laying down the new electronics policy.

He noted that the new policy will look at growth areas in electronics manufacturing segment. Adding further, he said that there is need to look at inward software market and therefore, the government will come up with a new software product policy.

Noting that India ranks third among global startup ecosystems, the Minister said that the country needed to have start-up clusters for facilitations. To help create Special Innovative Zones, he further said that they are working on a framework for a Start-ups Cluster Policy in coordination with Nasscom and the Data Security Council of India.

Highlighting the potential of the new economy with avenues like digital payments and e-commerce, the Minister pointed out that the focus needs to be on creating technology that is affordable, developmental, and inclusive.

Moving on to news from steel sector. Tata Steel share price closed higher by 3.4% today, after the company proposed to sell 83.6 million shares of Tata Motors to Tata Sons. The transaction is expected to be executed on or after 23 June 2017 at or around the prevailing price on the date of proposed sale, subject to no material market movements in price.

In another development, JSW steel share price too finished up by 2.1% on the BSE after it was reported that the company is planning to raise Rs 80 billion through a Qualified Institutional Placement (QIP) in 2017-18 to fund its ambitious capital expenditure plan of Rs 268 billion over the next four years to augment capacity.

The QIP will be part of the total amount of Rs 100 billion that the company might be looking to raise during the financial year in one or more tranches. The company is looking to sustain its debt to equity ratio of 3.75.

No Takers For Domestic Steel

The government's proposal to give domestic steel companies a preference in government projects should protect them from cheaper imports. But in the meanwhile, the steel makers are chasing exports by ramping up production.

In February, domestic steel output rose by 12.9% YoY, as large private steel producers such as Tata Steel and JSW Steel ramped up output. Imports during the first eleven months of FY17 dropped by 39% YoY.

However, the bigger concern is weak consumption growth. The consumption data over the past few months clearly show that there are no takers for domestic steel. So, steel makers have been forced to export more, with overseas shipments up by 78% YoY in the fiscal till February.

In news from energy sector, the Income-Tax Department has ordered coercive action against Cairn Energy Plc to recover Rs 102.47 billion of retrospective tax after the company lost a challenge to the move before an international arbitration panel.

As per an article in The Hindu Business Line, the department ordered taking away US$ 104 million dividend due to it from its remaining stake in the erstwhile subsidiary Cairn India (now called Vedanta Ltd) and another Rs 15 billion of tax refund due to it.

Reportedly, the tax department will now move to take over the 9.8% shareholding Cairn Energy had in Cairn India.

Vedanta Ltd share price finished the day up by 2.3% on the BSE.

Energy stocks finished the day on a firm note with Petronet LNG share price and Gulf Oil Lubricants share priceleading the gains.

And here's a note from Profit Hunter:

Tata Elxsi was among the most active stocks in the market today. Let's have a look at its chart.

The Nifty 50 Index bottomed in February 2016. At the same time, Tata Elxsi topped out at Rs 2,403. After demonetisation, the stock bottomed at Rs 1,021 and traded near 1,500 in matter of a few days. It then traded between Rs 1,400 and 1,600 for five months with Rs 1,600 acting as strong resistance.

Last month, the stock faced some serious selling pressure near this resistance and plunged to a low of Rs 1,282. But the selling was temporary as the stock recovered immediately with heavy volumes. But it again found resistance from Rs 1,600.

Today, the stock broke above this resistance with healthy volumes.

So it will be interesting to see if the stock can challenge its February 2016 high or slip back again to trade in a range.

Tata Elxsi Up 5% for the Day