After opening the day on a negative note, Indian share markets continued the downtrend as the session progressed and ended the day lower.

Benchmark indices fell on Monday amid declines in global markets and a rise in oil prices due to nervousness around escalating violence in the Middle East, while investors awaited the quarterly results of India's top private lender HDFC Bank.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 116 points (down 0.1%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed lower by 19 points (down 0.1%).

JSW Steel and Tata Steel were among the top gainers today.

TCS and Nestle were among the top losers today.

Check out the NSE Nifty heatmap to get the complete list of gainers and losers.

The Gift Nifty was trading at 19,736, up by 35 points, at the time of writing.

Broader markets ended on a positive note. The BSE Midcap index and the BSE SmallCap index ended 0.3% higher.

Sectoral indices ended mixed with stocks in the metal sector, auto sector, and energy sector witnessing buying. Meanwhile, stocks in the telecom sector and realty sector witnessed selling pressure.

Shares of TVS Motors and Lupin hit their 52-week highs today.

Now track the biggest movers of the stock market using the stocks to watch today section. This should help you keep updated with the latest developments...

Asian share markets ended on a negative note. The Hang Seng fell 0.9% while Nikkei ended 2% lower. Meanwhile Shanghai Composite closed 0.5% lower.

The rupee is trading at 83.26 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading down by 0.5% at Rs 59,100 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading 0.3% lower at Rs 71,057 per kg.
 

Venus Remedies receives marketing approval

In news from the pharma sector, Pharma major Venus Remedies on Monday said it has received marketing approval from the Philippines for six key chemotherapy drugs.

The approved drugs include bortezomib, cisplatin, doxorubicin, docetaxel, fluorouracil, and paclitaxel, which are crucial for cancer treatment.

With this, Venus Remedies has secured 525 marketing approvals for its oncology products across 76 countries.

This achievement marks a significant step towards achieving the company's goal of emerging as the top oncology medicine supplier from India in Southeast Asia.

The company will further extend its operations to other ASEAN markets.

Venus Remedies has already submitted dossiers to the Health Ministry of the Philippines for an additional 45 marketing authorizations, and most of these pending approvals are for oncology products.

Pertinently, the market size of cancer drugs in the Philippines was valued at US$ 252 million in 2020 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 8.7% by 2025.

Venus Remedies is among the pharma companies in India that have solid growth in sales and profits and a high Return on Equity (ROE).

Zydus Lifesciences appoints new CEO

Moving on, Zydus Lifesciences Limited, a global life sciences company, has appointed Punit Patel as president and chief executive officer (CEO) Americas.

In this role, Patel will oversee the business operations of all Zydus entities in North America, including generics, injectables, specialty businesses, rare and orphan disease portfolios, and future ventures into novel therapeutics.

Patel is a licensed pharmacist with a Doctorate of Pharmacy from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy & Allied Health Sciences and brings over 20 years of experience in the generics and branded pharmaceutical marketplace. His expertise encompasses the generic pharmaceutical market, including specialty, 505b2, injectables, and biosimilars.

Before joining Zydus, Patel served as the president of Red Oak Sourcing, overseeing a multibillion-dollar generic portfolio.

His responsibilities included setting strategic roadmaps, managing supplier relationships, financial obligations, cultural transformation, and collaboration with stakeholders such as CVS Health, Cardinal Health, and OptumRx.

Under his leadership, Red Oak was recognized as a Great Place to Work.

In 2023 between 1 January 2023 and 10 March 2023, the stock has gained 13%, making it among the top-performing Largecap stock of 2023 so far.
 

Finolex Order Halted: SC Inquiry

Moving on to news from the engineering sector, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Monday, 16 October, suspended its order about the disclosure of the results of the annual general meeting (AGM) of Finolex Cable. The order was passed last weekend.

The development comes after the appellate tribunal faced an inquiry by the Supreme Court into the matter.

Given the order of the Supreme Court, NCLT is passing an order for suspension of its judgment passed on October 13, 2023.

The order was about Finolex Cable's AGM and Prakash and Deepak Chhabria's legal tussle over the management control of the company.

On 13 October, the law tribunal permitted Deepak Chhabria to continue as the chairman of Finolex Cables and put on hold the changes that were to be brought into the Articles of Association of the company.

On the apex court on 13 October had directed the NCLT chairperson Justice (retd) Ashok Bhushan to conduct an inquiry into whether a bench of the appellate tribunal defied the apex court order.

Supreme Court earlier said that decisions such as the appointment of an executive chairperson would be subject to the outcome of the litigation at the law appellate tribunal.

India is home to many prominent engineering companies that cater to a wide range of sectors. 

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