Indian share markets witnessed volatile trading activity throughout the day today and ended higher.

Benchmark indices surged to fresh record high levels, defying global market mood, amid gains in index heavyweights Reliance Industries, Tata Steel and financial stocks.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 145 points (up 0.3%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed higher by 34 points (up 0.2%).

Tata Steel and Bajaj Finance were among the top gainers today.

Maruti Suzuki and Shree Cement, on the other hand, were among the top losers today.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 16,565, up by 37 points, at the time of writing.

The BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap index ended down by 0.2% and 0.6%, respectively.

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

Telecom and auto stocks, on the other hand, witnessed selling pressure.

Shares of Apollo Hospitals and Tech Mahindra hit their respective 52-week highs today.

Asian stock markets ended on a negative note today.

The Hang Seng ended the day down by 0.8%, while the Shanghai Composite ended on a flat note.

The Nikkei ended down by 1.6% in today's session.

US stock futures are trading on a negative note today with the Dow Futures trading down by 77 points.

The rupee is trading at 74.25 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading down by 0.1% at Rs 46,920 per 10 grams.

Speaking of stock markets, India's #1 trader Vijay Bhambwani talks about the best stocks to buy, in his latest video for Fast Profits Daily.

In news from the telecom sector, Vodafone Idea was among the top buzzing stocks today.

Shares of Vodafone Idea dropped by 6% to Rs 5.9 today on the back of the telco posting a net loss of Rs 73.1 bn in the first quarter of 2022 compared to Rs 69.9 bn in the previous quarter, hurt by sharp subscriber losses, which dragged down the revenue of the debt-laden telco.

The third-largest operator on Saturday reiterated its viability concerns unless it manages to raise funds, which in turn depends on the status of statutory dues that it owes the government, and also on other factors such as negotiations with lenders on better terms for repayment.

The company's financial performance has impacted its ability to generate the cash flow that it needs to settle or refinance its liabilities and guarantees as they fall due, which along with its financial condition, is resulting in material uncertainty that casts significant doubt on the company's ability to make the payments mentioned therein and continue as a going concern.

Total quarterly revenue for the cash-strapped operator fell to Rs 91.5 bn in April-June from Rs 96.1 bn when compared sequentially.

Vodafone said that the total debt of the group stands at Rs 191.6 bn of which the next installment of the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) liability - of around Rs 90 bn - and debt amounting to Rs 168.5 bn is payable in the next 12 months.

The results are the first after Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla quit as Vodafone Idea non-executive chairman and as a director on the board.

His resignation had come less than two months after he wrote to the government that he is willing to give up his stake in the company to any government entity, which can ensure the telco's survival.

Funds are now the telco's lifeline and the operator on its attempts to raise Rs 250 bn.

Ravinder Takkar, MD and CEO, said,

• We continue to focus on executing our strategy to keep our customers ahead, and our cost optimization plan remains on track to deliver the targeted savings.
  
  We are in active discussion with potential investors for fundraising, to achieve our strategic intent.

Vodafone Idea's share price ended the day down by 5.7% on the BSE.

Speaking of the current stock market scenario, note that the BSE smallcap index has surged 188% since the crash in March 2020.

Despite the index being up more than 1.8 times, Richa Agarwal, lead Smallcap Analyst at Equitymaster, believes smallcap stocks are set for a massive up move in 2021 and beyond.

Here's why...

The Smallcap to Sensex ratio, a metric referred to get a sense of relative valuations, currently stands at 0.48 times. To be sure, this is higher than a median of 0.43 times.

And yet, it's the lowest of all the peaks in the smallcaps so far. In the last cycle which peaked in January 2018, when the ratio touched 0.49, the peak was still 9 months away.

Here's what Richa wrote in a recent edition of Profit Hunter...

• When it comes to buying smallcap stocks, especially at this point in the rebound rally, you will need a bottom up approach, and a long term horizon.
  
  In fact, if you don't have the stomach to withstand a 20%-30% kind of corrections and volatility, this space may not be for you at all. And you should stop reading right here.

As per Richa, small caps are a great opportunity to make some big returns. But you need to stay disciplined when it comes to allocating money. And you need to be sharp when picking the right stocks.

Moving on to news from the IT sector...

HCL Technologies Selected by Rogers to Support Operational Stability

HCL Technologies announced that Rogers Communications has selected the company to expand support of operational stability excellence in business and operational support systems and corporate IT systems.

Rogers Communications is a leading Canadian telecom service provider and media company.

This new multi-year agreement strengthens HCL's managed services partnership with Rogers that began in 2016.

HCL will help scale Rogers' IT infrastructure and workloads migrating to the current private and public cloud infrastructure, support the enterprise's operations, and serve as the ongoing managed services provider.

The expanded contract will allow HCL to invest in the next generation of Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to enable best practices, accelerate efficiencies, and provide Rogers Communications with the needed flexibility to harness the new era of 5G and digital technologies.

Joelien Jose, executive vice president, and country head, Canada, HCL Technologies said the Rogers partnership with HCL further validates its substantial investment in Canada, the most recent being the 350-seat digital acceleration center in Mississauga.

HCL Technologies' share price ended the day up by 0.1% on the BSE.

How this pans out remains to be seen. Meanwhile, stay tuned for more updates from this space.