Market ends with modest gains

The market ended with modest gains backed by firmness in IT pivotals and index heavyweight Reliance Industries. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rose 159.06 points or 0.45% to 35,513.14, as per the provisional closing data. The Nifty 50 index rose 57.80 points or 0.54% to 10,686.40, as per the provisional closing data. Pharmaceutical shares witnessed selling pressure.

Investors were cautious ahead of the expiry of futures and options (F&O) contracts on Thursday and the release of India's gross domestic product data for the September quarter on Friday.

Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.32%. The BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.43%. Both these indices underperformed the Sensex.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On BSE, 1246 shares rose and 1332 shares fell. A total of 161 shares were unchanged.

Infosys (up 2.68%), TCS (up 2.31%), Reliance Industries (up 1.63%), Maruti Suzuki India (up 1.28%), IndusInd Bank (up 1.26%) and State Bank of India (up 1.26%), were the major Sensex gainers.

Hero MotoCorp (down 3.04%), Yes Bank (down 2.82%), Bajaj Auto (down 1.96%), Wipro (down 1.8%), Tata Steel (down 1.73%), Bharti Airtel (down 1.5%) and Tata Motors (down 0.99%), were the major Sensex losers.

Drug major Sun Pharmaceutical Industries fell 3.50%. Sun Pharma announced that it entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Pola Pharma Inc. (Pola Pharma), a Japanese pharmaceutical company engaged in research and development, manufacture, sale and distribution of branded and generic products in Japan. The portfolio of Pola Pharma primarily comprises dermatology products. The transaction is expected to close on or before 31 January 2019, subject to completion of closing conditions. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 26 November 2018.

In a separate announcement made after market hours yesterday, 26 November 2018, Sun Pharma and one of its wholly-owned subsidiaries entered into settlements with certain plaintiffs in the In re Modafinil Antitrust Litigation matter pending in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. The settlements extend to all claims brought by the Direct Purchaser Plaintiffs. The terms of the settlements are confidential, Sun Pharma said.

On the political front, state assembly elections will be closely watched. Assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram will be held on 28 November 2018. Polling in Rajasthan and Telangana will be held on 7 December 2018. The election to the 90-member Chhattisgarh Assembly was held in two phases 12 and 20 November 2018. Counting of votes will be held across all the five states on 11 December 2018.

Overseas, European shares were mixed as talk surrounding the UK's departure from the European Union continues to rumble on. Meanwhile, Italy's government is seen as upholding its leading 2019 budget goals for now, as it awaits cost analysis on spending measures.

Asian shares ended mixed on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump quashed hopes of a trade truce with China, dampening risk appetite across the region.

In a media interview, Trump said it is highly unlikely that he would delay an increase in tariffs from 10% to 25% on 1 January 2019. His comments came days before the G-20 summit in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he is set to meet Xi for trade talks. Many investors and decision makers are hoping that the summit will diffuse trade tensions between the US and China after each country applied additional tariffs on billions of dollars' worth of each other's imports.

US stocks closed higher Monday as retail shares rallied on expectations of strong sales as shoppers went hunting for deals on Cyber Monday. Stable oil prices and global equities gains also soothed sentiment after a bruising week of losses.

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