Updates for morning trade

By Bharath Rajeswaran and Vivek Kumar M

Sept 2 (Reuters) - India's equity benchmarks rose on Tuesday, in a broad-based rally led by Reliance Industries, while investors looked ahead to a key Goods and Services Tax $(GST)$ Council meeting later this week.

The NSE Nifty 50 .NSEI rose 0.41% to 24,726.35 and the BSE Sensex .BSESN gained 0.41% to 80,691.20 as of 10:17 a.m. IST.

The moves build on gains from Monday, when the benchmark indexes climbed 0.8%, with sentiment buoyed by better-than-expected GDP data and expectations of GST rate cuts.

The GST council, scheduled to meet on September 3-4, is planning to cut consumption tax by at least 10 percentage points on nearly 175 products ranging from shampoos and hybrid cars to consumer electronics, measures that could boost consumption.

All 16 major sectors logged gains. The broader small-caps .NIFSMCP100 and mid-caps .NIFMDCP100 rose 0.7% each.

Reliance Industries RELI.NS rose 2.2% after Morgan Stanley raised its price target, saying the company stands to benefit most from China's drive to curb excess capacity and price wars in energy and solar supply chains.

Reliance led both the energy .NIFTYENR and oil and gas indexes .NIFOILGAS about 1.2% higher.

"The domestic macro backdrop and demand environment remain constructive, though 50% U.S. tariffs could cap gains," said Siddhartha Khemka, head of research for wealth management at Motilal Oswal Financial Services.

"Still, expectations of a U.S. rate cut in September, optimism over GST reforms and festive demand are lending resilience to markets despite tariff concerns," he added.

Sugar stocks such as Balrampur Chini BACH.NS, Triveni Engineering TREI.NS, Shree Renuka SRES.NS and Dalmia Bharat Sugar DLMI.NS surged between 4% and 13% after the government allowed unrestricted ethanol production from sugarcane byproducts from 2025/26.

Phoenix Mills PHOE.NS jumped 4% after Motilal Oswal upgraded the stock to "buy," citing growth prospects from new mall launches.

Puravankara PURA.NS gained 3% after its unit secured a 27 billion rupees ($309 million) order for redevelopment of a housing society.

(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Bharath Rajeswaran; Editing by Sumana Nandy and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)

((VivekKumar.M@thomsonreuters.com;))