Oil explorers, refiners lift Indian shares over 1% as govt cuts windfall tax

BENGALURU (Reuters) - Indian shares rose more than 1% on Wednesday, led by gains in oil producers and refiners following the government's move to slash windfall taxes on crude and fuel exports.

The NSE Nifty 50 index gained 1% to 16,513, as of 0345 GMT, while the S&P BSE Sensex was up 1.2% at 55,439.18.

India cut a windfall tax on oil producers and refiners and exempted gasoline from an export levy less than a month after it imposed the two charges.

Reliance Industries jumped 4.3%, while shares of oil producers Vedanta Ltd, Oil and Natural Gas Corp, Oil India Ltd gained between 2.8% and 7.0%.

The Nifty energy index gained 1.7%.

(Reporting by Nallur Sethuraman in Bengaluru; Editing by Rashmi Aich)