Sensex ends at record high led by banks, gains 314 pts; Nifty closes at 12,874

Sensex gained 314 points to end at record high of 43,952.71 after crossing 44,000 in early session, while Nifty closed at 12,874. Banks, financials and banks were the lead gainers.

Tata Steel was the best gainer in the metals pack, surging 6%.

On the Nifty, 30 stocks advanced, 19 declined and one was unchanged.

Sentiment was boosted after a second major coronavirus vaccine propelled stocks globally and put Europe on course for its best month in nearly three decades.

India's oil minister Dharmendra Pradhan asked exploration companies to consider farming out their acreages to global players with advanced technology to expedite development and raise oil and gas output.

India, the world's third biggest oil importer and consumer, depends on foreign purchases for over 80% of its oil needs. The nation's oil and gas output has been stagnant for years, forcing it to raise reliance on imports to meet rising fuel demand.

Pfizer Inc and its group companies filed a petition in a US court against Aurobindo Pharma Ltd and Dr Reddy's Laboratories alleging that the Indian drug makers were planning separately to come out with generic versions of its blockbuster multi-billion dollar drug Ibrance (palbociclib) before expiration of its patent.

Pfizer filed the possible patent infringement case against Aurobindo Pharma in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware and Dr Reddy's in the New Jersey court.

Tata Consultancy Services announced on Tuesday that it is developing an investment insights solution, leveraging SAP Business Technology Platform, for the capital markets industry. The solution uses artificial intelligence techniques and TCS intellectual property such as Automated Data Discovery and Machine Learning-based Data Quality Management tools to help investment management firms enhance their portfolio decisioning

Goldman Sachs now expects India’s FY21 GDP to contract 10.3% against earlier expected 14.8% contraction. It sees GDP growth rebounding to 13% in FY22

Senapathy (Kris) Gopalakrishnan, co-founder and former co-chairman of Infosys, has been appointed as the first chairperson of the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub.

In August, the central bank had announced that it will set up the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) to promote innovation across the financial sector by leveraging on technology and creating an environment that would facilitate and foster innovation.

Most Asian markets ended firm on Tuesday on news that another vaccine candidate appeared to be effective against the coronavirus.

Japan's Nikkei 225 closed 0.4% higher, Hong Kong's gained 0.1% and Australia ASX gained 0.2%. However, Shanghai Composite ended 0.2% lower.

Tata Steel will focus on making its operations in the UK self-sustaining post Brexit, the company’s management said, even as it is in negotiations with SSAB Sweden to divest the rest of its European business in the Netherlands.

The coronavirus situation in Germany is still very serious even though infection numbers are not rising so fast, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday, after federal and state leaders postponed until Nov. 25 a decision on further lockdown measures.

European stocks eased from eight-month highs on Tuesday as tighter coronavirus restrictions across the continent halted a market rally that was powered by encouraging COVID-19 vaccine updates.

The pan-European STOXX 600 index slipped 0.1% by 0808 GMT. It closed at it highest level since Feb. 27 on Monday after positive data from drugmaker Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine.

A panel of officials attached to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council will on Wednesday discuss further tightening of the way GST registration is issued to businesses to check tax evasion, said a government official.

The law committee of the Council will thrash out amendments to the GST law needed to prevent frauds involving fake invoices, said the official, requesting anonymity. Law committee is a panel of central and state officials which examines legal aspects of GST before Council members consider it. (Read here)

The NSE on Tuesday said funds and securities worth ₹2,300 crore belonging to about 2.35 lakh investors of Karvy Stock Broking Ltd have been settled so far.

The case pertains to Karvy unauthorisedly transferring securities of clients into one of its Demat accounts by misusing the Power of Attorney given by its clients.

State-owned Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corp. (IRCTC) Ltd will cancel its fleet of Tejas Express trains starting next week, due to low occupancy, the company said on Tuesday.

The Lucknow-New Delhi-Lucknow and Ahmedabad-Mumbai Ahmedabad Tejas Express will remain cancelled from 23, 24 November respectively, a senior government official said.

“The trains will be cancelled due to low occupancy. The occupancy rate has been less than 25%. The trains have been cancelled till further notice,” the government official cited above told Mint.

Two Indian-American CEOs, Satya Nadella from Microsoft and Sonia Syngal from GAP, are among a select group of nine business and labour leaders invited by President-elect Joe Biden on Monday to discuss issues related to the country's economy.

Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would join Biden in the virtual meeting with the top American CEOs.