Photo by Srikanth D on Unsplash

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

Benchmark indices fluctuated between gains and losses as investors monitored geo-political tensions between Russia and Ukraine.

The day began with reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Joe Biden had agreed in principle to a summit over the Ukraine crisis, the Kremlin later said there were no concrete plans yet for a summit.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 149 points (down 0.3%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed lower by 70 points (down 0.4%).

Wipro and Infosys were among the top gainers today.

Coal India and Hindalco, on the other hand, were among the top losers today.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 17,207, down by 73 points, at the time of writing.

The BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap index ended down by 0.8% and 2.2%, respectively.

Sectoral indices ended on a negative note with stocks in the oil & gas sector and metal sector witnessing most of the selling pressure.

Banking stocks, on the other hand, witnessed buying interest.

Shares of Linde India And Chalet Hotels hit their respective 52-week highs today.

Asian stock markets ended on a negative note today.

The Hang Seng and the Shanghai Composite ended down by 0.7% and 0.1%, respectively. The Nikkei ended down by 0.8% in today's session.

US stock futures are trading on a positive note today with the Dow Futures trading up by 42 points.

The rupee is trading at 74.50 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading down by 0.1% at Rs 50,064 per 10 grams.

In news from the telecom sector, Bharti Airtel was among the top buzzing stocks today.

Bharti Airtel today said that it has joined the SEA-ME-WE-6 undersea cable consortium to scale up its high speed global network capacity and serve India's fast growing digital economy.

The 19,200 km SEA-ME-WE-6 will connect Singapore and France, and will be amongst the largest undersea cable systems globally, the telco said in a statement.

Airtel is participating as a major investor in the SEA-ME-WE-6 and is anchoring 20% of the overall investment in the cable system, which will go live in 2025.

The 12 other consortium members of SEA-ME-WE-6 include Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company, Dhiraagu (Maldives), Djibouti Telecom, Mobily (Saudi Arabia), Orange (France), Singtel (Singapore), Sri Lanka Telecom, Telecom Egypt, Telekom Malaysia, Telin (Indonesia).

Through SEA-ME-WE-6, Airtel will add a significant amount of 100 terabits per second (TBps) capacity to its global network. Airtel said it has acquired one Fiber Pair on the main SEA-ME-WE-6 system and will co-build four Fiber Pairs between Singapore - Chennai - Mumbai as part of the cable system.

Airtel will land the SEA-ME-WE-6 cable system in India at new landing stations in Mumbai and Chennai.

SEA-ME-WE-6 will be fully integrated with Nxtra by Airtel's large Data Centers in Mumbai and Chennai to enable global hyperscalers and businesses to access seamless integrated solutions and strengthen India's position as an emerging data center hub in the region.

Bharti Airtel share price ended the day down by 0.3% on the BSE.

Moving on to news from the consumer durables sector...

Shares of Butterfly Gandhimati Appliances rose nearly 8.5% today after the company reported that Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals is likely to buy out a controlling stake in the firm.

Crompton Greaves Consumer is looking to buy more than 50% stake in the consumer appliance company for Rs 14.5 bn, which is likely to trigger an open offer to public shareholders.

Currently, promoters of Butterfly Gandhimati hold 64.78% stake which is likely to become a minority holding once the deal goes through. Butterfly Gandhimati's market capitalisation currently stands at Rs 23.2 bn.

Butterfly Gandhimati had been on the lookout to raise funds worth Rs 5 bn to expand its products and services. Earlier, reports had said that Havells India was also interested in buying a majority stake in the consumer appliance maker.

The deal could be the largest in the consumer appliance space in a long time and points towards further consolidation as demand for home appliances spikes due to work from home triggered by the pandemic.

Butterfly Gandhimati share price ended the day up by 7.5% on the BSE.

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