After opening the day higher, Indian share markets witnessed volatility throughout the day and ended on a flat note.

Benchmark indices gained in early trade today after five straight sessions of falls, boosted by index heavyweight Reliance Industries.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 7 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty ended up by 32 points.

The BSE Sensex reclaimed the 50,000-mark, rising to as high as 50,327 in intraday trade. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty surpassed the 14,850-mark.

ONGC was among the top gainers today. Kotak Mahindra Bank, on the other hand, was among the top losers today.

SGX Nifty was trading at 14,776, up by 104 points, at the time of writing.

The BSE Mid Cap index ended up by 1%. The BSE Small Cap index ended higher by 0.7%.

Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note with stocks in the metal sector and oil & gas sector witnessing buying interest.

Banking stocks and finance stocks, on the other hand, witnessed selling pressure.

Asian share markets ended higher, fueled by hopes that vaccine rollouts will allow the global economy to get back on track, but the optimism was tempered by niggling worries that the recovery will fan inflation and interest rate hikes.

The Hang Seng ended up by 1% while the Shanghai Composite ended down by 0.2%.

US stock futures are trading lower today indicating a negative opening for Wall Street indices. Nasdaq Futures are trading down by 130 points, while Dow Futures are trading lower by 58 points.

The rupee is trading at 72.45 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading down by 0.3% at Rs 46,760 per 10 grams.

In news from the IPO space...

The initial public offering (IPO) of agrochemical manufacturer Heranba Industries was subscribed 65% at the time of Indian stock market closing hours today, on the first day of bidding.

The Rs 6.3-billion public issue received bids for 3.5 million equity shares against an offer size of 7 million shares, the subscription data available on the exchanges showed.

The portion reserved for retail investors was subscribed 1.28 times. The portion set aside for non-institutional investors was subscribed 4%, while qualified institutional buyers have not started bidding for the issue.

The offer size excludes an anchor book of over 3 million equity shares. The company mopped up Rs 1.9 billion from anchor investors on February 22, a day before the opening for the issue.

The agrochemical company's IPO includes a fresh issue of Rs 600 million and the remaining is an offer for sale (OFS) by existing investors.

The price band for the issue has been fixed at Rs 626-627 per share.

Heranba Industries is a crop protection chemicals manufacturer, exporter, and marketing company. It has over 9400 dealers/distributors across 16 states and 1 Union Territory in India and exports to over 60 countries across the Middle East, South East Asia, and Africa.

How this IPO sails through remains to be seen. Meanwhile, stay tuned for more updates from this space.

Moving on to stock-specific news...

Reliance Industries was among the top buzzing stocks today.

Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries (RIL), which has proposed hiving off its oil to chemicals (O2C) business into an independent subsidiary, today said it had received approval from the markets regulator and stock exchanges to create this subsidiary.

The company now requires the approval of equity shareholders and creditors, regulatory authorities, and the income-tax authority, besides the National Company Law Tribunals (NCLTs) in Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

RIL said it would transfer all its refining, marketing, and petrochemical assets to O2C. This includes RIL's 51% stake in its joint venture with BP, the existing fuel retailing subsidiary.

RIL said the approval process had commenced and was expected to be completed by the second quarter of the 2021-22 financial year.

In a presentation to investors, RIL said that the creation of this subsidiary would facilitate value creation through strategic partnerships and attract dedicated pools of investor capital. The ongoing talks with Aramco for a stake sale in RIL were also mentioned in this presentation.

Reliance Industries' share price ended the day up by 0.8%.

Moving on to news from the defense sector, shares of Cochin Shipyard surged 11% intraday today after the company received orders from the Indian Navy. The stock ended close to its 52-week high of Rs 396.

The company has been declared as L1 or the lowest bidder in the tender floated by the Indian Navy for the construction of 6 numbers of Next Generation Missile Vessels (NGMV) and the estimated total order value is around Rs 100 billion, Cochin Shipyard said in a regulatory filing.

The company said that the final announcement of the contract will be subject to the satisfactory completion of necessary formalities in this regard, which will be updated in due course.

Meanwhile, the stock turned ex-date for a second interim dividend of Rs 4 per equity share of Rs 10 for the financial year 2020-21. The company has fixed Wednesday, February 24, 2021, as the record date for the aforesaid interim dividend.

This is in addition to the interim dividend of Rs 9 per equity share which was recommended by the board on January 04, 2021.

Cochin Shipyard's share price ended the day up by 8.5%.

Speaking of the defense sector, have a look at the chart below which shows the top 5 military spending countries in the world as of 2019: