After opening the day on a flat note, Indian share markets extended gains as the session progressed and ended higher, taking the winning streak to the 5th day.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 224 points. The NSE Nifty stood higher by 58 points.

The Sensex hit an all-time high of 46,992 and Nifty logged a lifetime high of 13,773 in today's session.

HDFC and Bajaj Finance were among the top gainers today. ONGC, on the other hand, was among the top losers today.

SGX Nifty was trading at 13,750, up by 54 points, at the time of writing.

The BSE Mid Cap index ended down by 0.1%. The BSE Small Cap index ended lower by 0.2%.

Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note with stocks in the capital goods sector and finance sector witnessing buying interest. Metal stocks and oil & gas stocks, on the other hand, witnessed selling pressure.

Sugar stocks were in focus today after the Union Cabinet approved Rs 35-billion sugar export subsidy. The central government on Wednesday approved a subsidy to sugar mills for the export of around six million tonnes (MT) in the ongoing 2020-21 marketing season that started in October.

Shares of Balrampur Chini, Triveni Engineering Industries, Uttam Sugar Mills, Dhampur Sugar Mills, Shree Renuka Sugars, EID Parry (India), and Dwarikesh Sugar Industries gained in the range of 3-5%.

Asian stock markets ended on a positive note as expectations for further US economic stimulus and a pledge of support from the Federal Reserve lifted sentiment.

As of the most recent closing prices, the Shanghai Composite stood higher by 1.1% and the Hang Seng ended up by 0.8%. The Nikkei closed up 0.2%, reversing early losses.

US stock futures are trading higher today, indicating a positive start for Wall Street indices.

Nasdaq Futures are trading up by 66 points (up 0.5%), while Dow Futures are trading up by 137 points (up 0.5%).

The rupee is trading at 73.59 against the US$.

The domestic currency appreciated 6 paise to 73.52 against the US dollar in opening trade today as sustained foreign fund inflows and positive domestic equities strengthened investor sentiment.

In the previous session, the rupee had appreciated 5 paise to close at 73.58 against the US dollar.

In news from the commodity space, domestic gold and silver prices continued their upward trend today on hopes of a breakthrough in US stimulus talks.

On MCX, February gold futures rose 1.1% to Rs 50,126 per 10 gram, extending gains to the third day. Silver futures gained 1.2% to Rs 66,746 per kg.

In the previous session, gold prices had risen 0.3% while silver had surged 1.5% or about Rs 1,000 per kg.

In global markets, gold rates were steady near a one-week high, supported by hopes that US lawmakers will soon make progress towards a fiscal stimulus deal and a weak dollar.

US Federal Reserve's pledge to keep rates low until an economic recovery is secure also helped to support gold rates.

Note that gold exchange-traded funds (ETFs) offered by domestic mutual funds saw net redemptions of Rs 1.4 billion in November - their first outflow since March.

Between April and October, these funds had seen inflows of nearly Rs 50 billion.

Reports state that the correction in gold prices has discouraged some investors from investing in gold.

Speaking of the precious yellow metal, how lucrative has gold been as a long-term investment in India?

The chart below shows the annual returns on gold over the last 15 years...

As you can see, barring just two years - 2013 and 2015, gold has delivered positive returns in 13 of the last 15 years.

Even with the recent volatility in prices, gold remains among the best-performing commodities this year to combat the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

Gold prices in India are still up nearly 25% so far this year.

In the latest developments from the IPO space, shares of Burger King India, which made a stellar debut at the bourses on Monday, surged 10% today, taking its gains to 265% over the issue price, after just four days of its listing on the stock exchanges.

Burger King India's share price hit its 10% circuit limit to a high of Rs 219.15. However, the stock of the company witnessed profit booking as the script ended lower by 10%.

In other news, the public issue of Mrs Bectors Food Specialities was subscribed 187 times at the time of writing. Today is the last day for the subscription of this issue.

The offer received bids for 2,470 million equity shares against the offer of more than 13.2 million equity shares.

The portion set aside for non-institutional investors was subscribed 581 times and that of qualified institutional buyers 169 times. Retail investors and employees' reserved portion was subscribed 28.2 and 44 times, respectively.

The IPO comprises a fresh issue of Rs 405.4 million and an offer-for-sale of Rs 5 billion.

Note that the previous IPO to this - Burger King India's IPO - received an overwhelming response from investors, with the public offer being subscribed 157 times. The issue generated bids for 11.7 billion shares, worth Rs 700 billion, as against only 75 million on offer.

That made Burger King India the fourth mainboard IPO this year, which saw bidding of 100 times and more. The other three were Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders (157.41 times), Happiest Minds (156.65 times) and Chemcon Speciality (149.3 times).

While Mazagon got listed at a near 50% premium to its IPO price, Chemcon Speciality saw a 115% surge. Shares of Happiest Minds Technologies rallied 111% at its listing.

How the IPO of Mrs Bectors Food Specialties sails through remains to be seen. Meanwhile, we will keep you updated on the latest developments in this space.

Moving on to stock-specific news...

L&T Technology Services was among the top buzzing stocks today.

Shares of L&T Technology Services zoomed over 8% to Rs 2,000, also its record high, after the company said it was recognized with the Frost & Sullivan 2020 Global Customer Value Leadership Award for its intelligent building experience management system, i-BEMSTM.

In a press release, the company said the 2020 award recipients were evaluated on various parameters, including major operational efficiency, customer acquisition, customer experience, and growth potential.

Earlier this week on Monday, the company also announced that it has been selected by Schindler, the Switzerland-based global leading provider of elevators, escalators, moving walks, and related services as one of its key partners to provide innovative digital engineering capabilities.

According to the agreement, L&T Technology will provide product development, innovation and engineering services & solutions that will help Schindler to accelerate its digitization and connectivity initiatives.

L&T Technology is a listed subsidiary of Larsen & Toubro (L&T).

L&T Technology's share price ended the day up by 7.1%.