Market gains for sixth straight session

Domestic stocks erased intraday losses to eke out modest gains in a highly volatile session of trade. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, rose 77.01 points or 0.21% at 36,347.08, as per the provisional closing data. The Nifty 50 index rose 20.35 points or 0.19% at 10,908.70, as per the provisional closing data. Local stocks gained for sixth day in a row.

Global stocks followed Wall Street lower Tuesday, as markets around the world retreated in the face of slowing economic growth and rising political uncertainty while investors looked to the US Federal Reserve monetary policy decision due on Wednesday.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index rose 0.21%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index rose 0.45%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was positive. On the BSE, 1437 shares rose and 1122 shares fell. A total of 164 shares were unchanged.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) fell 0.26%. TCS has extended its collaboration with Red Hat to build microservices-based open source solutions and frameworks that will accelerate customers' digital transformation journeys. The collaboration aims to develop industry-specific as well as cross-industry horizontal solutions and frameworks leveraging the Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform, machine learning algorithms, natural language processing engines, and other Red Hat specific products and technologies. These solutions will help customers accelerate their shift away from legacy monolithic systems, towards more agile, cloud native, containerized applications based on open source technologies, in hybrid environments. The announcement was made during market hours today, 18 December 2018.

M&M rose 1.62%. The company has signed a Share Subscription Agreement with Sampo Rosenlew Oy, Finland, an associate of the company ('Sampo') and has agreed to subscribe to 822 equity shares and 192 Compulsorily Convertible Preference Shares. Pursuant to this, the voting rights of the company in Sampo would increase from 35% to upto 49.04%. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 17 December 2018.

Tata Steel rose 0.76%. Tata Steel and Thyssenkrupp have decided on the members of the future management board for the planned European steel joint venture between the two companies. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 17 December 2018.

Coal India rose 0.34%. A meeting of board of directors of the company will be held on 20 December 2018 to consider payment of interim dividend, if any, for the year 2018-19. The company has fixed 31 December 2018 as the record date, for the purpose of payment of interim dividend. The announcement was made during market hours today, 18 December 2018.

On the political front, Kamal Nath, chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, on Monday reportedly waived the outstanding short term crop loans of farmers up to Rs 2 lakh as on 31 March 2018, taken from nationalised and the cooperative banks. The decision will benefit as many as 3.4 million farmers and will cost the exchequer between Rs 35,000 to Rs 38,000 crore, according to media reports.

Further, Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Bhagel, who too took charge on Monday, reportedly announced that his government will waive farm loans worth Rs 6,100 crore of around 1.66 million farmers. He also announced that the government will increase the minimum support price for paddy from Rs 1,700 per quintal to Rs 2,500 a quintal, reports added.

Overseas, European shares traded lower on Tuesday with investors growing increasingly concerned over the political impasse over Brexit in the United Kingdom, where parliament continues to debate procedural issues surrounding Prime Minister Theresa May's EU exit deal and isn't likely to formally vote on it until early next year.

Asian stocks declined on Tuesday, tracking losses on Wall Street as traders braced for an interest rate hike by Federal Reserve. US equity indexes slid to their lowest close in 14 months on Monday as investors weighed the impact of the Fed on growth in a market already anxious over trade, geopolitical tensions and a possible government shutdown.

The Federal Reserve holds its final policy meeting of 2018 on Tuesday and Wednesday. The Federal Open Market Committee is expected to raise its short-term interest rate by a modest quarter-point to a range of 2.25% to 2.5%. Investors are closely watching the Federal Reserve monetary policy guidance for 2019. The central bank forecasts three more rate hikes in 2019, but softer global growth could cause a shift in its hawkish stance. The Bank of Japan's monetary policy decision is due Thursday, followed by a briefing from Governor Haruhiko Kuroda. A Bank of England decision is also due on Thursday.

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