The market ended lower for second straight day, dragged by weakness in TCS, Reliance Industries and Larsen & Toubro. A firmness in ITC supported the indices at lower levels. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, fell 96.66 points or 0.27% to 36,009.84, as per the provisional closing data. The Nifty 50 index fell 26.65 points or 0.25% to 10,794.95, as per the provisional closing data.

The indices opened higher and hit fresh intraday high in early deals. Indices sharply pared gains in morning trade. The market reversed trend and turned negative in mid-morning trade. Indices extended losses in early-afternoon trade and hit fresh intraday low in mid-afternoon trade. Indices pared losses in late trade.

Broader market witnessed selling pressure. Among secondary barometers, the BSE Mid-Cap index fell 0.13%. The BSE Small-Cap index fell 0.19%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, was negative. On BSE, 1193 shares rose and 1420 shares fell. A total of 176 shares were unchanged.

IndusInd Bank (down 3.35%), Yes Bank (down 1.9%), Larsen & Toubro (down 1.57%), Tata Steel (down 1.55%), Power Grid Corporation of India (down 0.97%) and Bharti Airtel (down 1.38%), were the major Sensex losers.

ONGC (up 0.63%), Vedanta (up 0.59%), Axis Bank (up 0.44%), HDFC (up 0.40%) and Asian Paints (up 0.21%), were the major Sensex gainers.

ITC rose 1.85% at Rs 294.90. A foreign brokerage reportedly retained 'buy' call on the ITC stock and raised price target to Rs 400 from Rs 390 earlier due to unchanged tobacco taxes.

TCS lost 2.38%. The company's consolidated net profit rose 2.58% to Rs 8105 crore on 2.43% rise in total income to Rs 38501 crore in Q3 December 2018 over Q2 September 2018. The result was announced after market hours yesterday, 10 January 2019.

Commenting on the Q3 performance, Rajesh Gopinathan, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, said the strong client metrics, industry leading growth in digital services, a very strong order book and deal pipeline are all validations that customers recognize the company's differentiated capabilities and are picking it for their growth and transformation programs.

Infosys rose 0.76%. The company announces its Q3 December 2018 results today, 11 January 2019. The company announced on 8 January 2019 that its board will consider proposals, including but not limited to, buyback of fully paid-up equity shares of the company, payment of special dividend, for implementation of the Capital Allocation Policy at its meeting to be held on 11 January 2019. The outcome of the board meeting will be disseminated to the stock exchanges after conclusion of the board meeting on 11 January 2019.

Reliance Industries fell 0.96%. The company said that it is planning to shut down one of the Crude Distillation units and Coker Unit of its DTA refinery at Jamnagar for routine maintenance and inspection activities for about 4 weeks starting from 16 January 2019. The other Crude Distillation and Secondary processing units are expected to operate normally. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 10 January 2019.

Tata Motors fell 3.18%. The Tata Motors Group global wholesales in December 2018, including Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), were at 100,551 units, lower by 13.9%, as compared to December 2017. Global wholesales of all Tata Motors' commercial vehicles and Tata Daewoo range in December 2018 were at 40,653 units, lower by 14% over December 2017. Global wholesales of all passenger vehicles in December 2018 were at 59,898 units, lower by 14%, compared to December 2017. The announcement was made during trading hours today, 11 January 2019.

The company's unit JLR reported retail of 52,160 in December, down 6.4% year-on-year primarily reflecting ongoing challenging market conditions in China (down 42.4%) as slowing economic growth and trade tensions with the US continue to impact automotive sales volumes across the industry, which were lower for the sixth consecutive month. Jaguar Land Rover continues to work closely with retailers in China to respond to the present market conditions. The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 10 January 2019.

On the macro front, the GST council in its 32nd meeting held yesterday, 10 January 2019, under the Chairmanship of the Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs, Arun Jaitley in New Delhi took major decisions to give relief to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) (including small traders) among others. The council increased turnover limit for the existing composition scheme. The limit of annual turnover in the preceding financial year for availing composition scheme for goods shall be increased to Rs 1.5 crore. Special category states would decide, within one week, about the composition limit in their respective states.

The compliance under composition scheme shall be simplified as now they would need to file one annual return but payment of taxes would remain quarterly (along with a simple declaration).

The council also announced that there would be two threshold limits for exemption from registration and payment of GST for the suppliers of goods i.e. Rs 40 lakh and Rs 20 lakh. States would have an option to decide about one of the limits within a weeks' time. The threshold for registration for service providers would continue to be Rs 20 lakhs and in case of special category States at Rs 10 lakh.

A composition scheme shall be made available for suppliers of services (or mixed suppliers) with a tax rate of 6% (3% CGST +3% SGST) having an annual turnover in the preceding financial year up to Rs 50 lakh. The said scheme shall be applicable to both service providers as well as suppliers of goods and services, who are not eligible for the presently available composition scheme for goods. They would be liable to file one annual return with quarterly payment of taxes (along with a simple declaration).

Overseas, stocks in Europe were trading higher on Friday. In Europe, there is a strong focus on politics as the UK's departure from the European Union approaches. Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Thursday in London that he hopes both sides will avoid a no-deal.

Asian stocks ended higher on Friday, amid improved investor sentiment following overnight gains on Wall Street.

US stock markets logged a fifth straight advance on Thursday, representing the longest such win streaks for the Dow and S&P 500 of the past few months. Investors responded to comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. At the Economic Club of Washington, Powell reiterated the views of other policymakers that the Fed would be patient about interest rate hikes. He added that the Fed's balance sheet would be "substantially smaller".