Indian share markets witnessed selling pressure during the last hour of trade and ended on a negative note.

Benchmark indices took a U-turn and erased early gains as investors booked profits at higher levels.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex dipped 106 points, ending 0.2% lower.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty was down 62 points, ending at 16,240.

HUL, Asian Paints, and IndusInd Bank were among the top gainers today.

Tata Steel, Sun Pharma, and NTPC were among the top losers today.

The broader markets ended deep in red as the BSE Mid Cap index plummeted 2% while the BSE Small Cap index dipped 2.1%.

Barring banking, all sectoral indices ended in red with stocks in the metal sector, energy sector, and IT sector witnessing most of the selling.

Shares of Power Grid hit their 52-week high today.

Outside the home ground, Asian share markets posted mixed signals tracking another Wall Street rout on fears over rising US interest rates and inflation, with investors eyeing earnings reports.

At the close in Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 fell 0.6%, while the Hang Seng dipped 1.9%. The shanghai composite added 1.1%.

The SGX Nifty was trading 0.6% lower at the time of writing.

Gold prices are currently trading down by 0.1% at Rs 50,909 per 10 grams while silver is also down 0.2% at Rs 61,375 per kg.

The rupee is trading at 77.31 against the US$.

In news from the pharma sector, Sun Pharma concluded the United States Food and Drug Administration's (USFDA) audit with ten observations.

The USFDA conducted a good manufacturing practices (GMP) inspection of the company's Halol facility located in Gujarat, India from 26 April to 09 May 2022.

Today, the pharma major informed the exchanges that the USFDA has issued Form 483 with ten observations to the company's unit.

Form 483 is issued to a firm's management after an inspection when the investigator has observed any conditions that in its judgment may constitute violations of the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act and related Acts.

In its communication to exchanges, the company said:

The company is preparing the response to the observations, which will be submitted to the US FDA within 15 business days. The company is committed to addressing these observations promptly.

The company remains committed to working closely with the US FDA and continues to enhance its GMP compliance on an ongoing basis.

During the financial year 2021, the company garnered 30% of its revenues from the US business.

Sun Pharma reported US $397 m US formulation sales in the December quarter of 2022. It presented a growth of 6% as compared to the same quarter in the previous year.

Shares of Sun Pharma remained under pressure today and closed 2.7% lower on the BSE.

Speaking of the current stock market scenario, amid the ongoing volatility, have a look at the two charts below in the order they have been placed:

Near Term Volatility in Sensex Compensated by Long Term Gains

The year-on-year change in the Sensex was hardly predictable but someone who stayed invested multiplied every lakh nearly 14 times.

Timing the markets could be suicidal as valuations and volatility put the markets in a see-saw mode.

As an individual investor, you need to sit tight over high conviction stocks and invest consistently to see the magic of compounding.

Because 2022 could be extremely profitable, over time, provided you reset your portfolio with the right kind of safe assets and safe stocks.

Moving on to news from the engineering sector, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) announced a partnership with VMware to accelerate digital infrastructure solutions across verticals.

Smart World & Communication business of L&T has joined hands with VMware Inc, a global provider of multi-cloud services, to incubate a VMware Centre of Excellence (COE).

SWC, as a master systems integrator, provides technology solutions and services in the areas of Safe and Smart cities and Digital Communications.

The offerings from the partnership would include an AI and automation-led 'Intelligent, secure SD-WAN on-demand' solution, to help clients improve the experience and efficiencies across their enterprise networks.

The Senior Executive Vice President for L&T's Defence Business & Smart Technologies Business, J. D Patil said:

With the advent of 5G, we believe, the market is set to see large scale adoption of Industry 4.0 solutions across manufacturing, healthcare, education, and other industries.

L&T SWC and VMware join hands to build a robust suite of digital infrastructure solutions, to help businesses become highly agile, versatile, and resilient.

This partnership will help clients attain digital versatility through multi-cloud solutions, leveraging VMware suite of products.

The partnership will also focus on innovation in the areas of cloud engineering and disaster recovery, improving the resilience of businesses and enterprises.

L&T share price ended 0.7% lower today on the BSE.