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

Benchmark indices failed to hold gains after opening at a record high in today's session and ended on a negative note, even as Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced relief measures for an economy, battered by a second wave of Covid-19, and which is bracing for a possible third wave.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 189 points (down 0.4%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed lower by 46 points (down 0.3%).

Dr Reddys Labs and Hindalco were among the top gainers today.

HDFC Life Insurance and Titan, on the other hand, were among the top losers today.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 15,863, down by 8 points, at the time of writing.

The BSE MidCap index and the BSE SmallCap index ended up by 0.4% and 0.5%, respectively.

Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note with stocks in the energy sector, engineering sector, and IT sector witnessing most of the selling pressure.

Healthcare and metal stocks, on the other hand, witnessed buying interest.

Shares of Apollo Hospital and Piramal Enterprises hit their respective 52-week highs today.

Asian stock markets ended on a negative note today.

Both, the Hang Seng and the Shanghai Composite ended on a flat note today.

The Nikkei ended down by 0.1% in today's session.

US stock futures are trading on a flat note today with the Dow Futures trading down by 18 points.

The rupee is trading at 74.19 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading on a flat note today at Rs 46,915 per 10 grams.

Speaking of the stock markets, India's #1 trader, Vijay Bhambwani talks about why he believes the market is likely to stay bullish till the end of June, in his latest video for Fast Profits Daily.

In news from the engineering sector, Power Mech Projects was among the top buzzing stocks today.

Shares of Power Mech Projects soared 15% to hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 767.3 on the BSE today after the company said it has won a mine development & operation (MOO) project from central coalfields limited (CCL), a subsidiary of Coal India, aggregating to Rs 92.9 bn over the contract period.

The stock surpassed its previous high of Rs 744.9 on 17 June 2021.

The MOO contract will primarily comprise of mine infrastructure development, removal of overburden and extraction of coking coal, processing, crushing and transportation of coal up to washery of CCL, carrying out R&R activities and any other activities incidental to mining as per the project document at Kotre Basantpur Pachmo OCP located in Ramgarh and Bokaro Districts, Jharkhand.

'The project has total coal extraction capacity of approximately 105 m tons (MT) with an annual capacity of 5 MT and over burden removal during the project period is over 539 MBCM. The concession period is 25 years including two years of development period with an option of extending the contract for a period of another 10 years with the consent of both the parties (with this the total contract period will extend up to 35 years)', the company said in a press release.

The project has been awarded to a consortium of Power Mech Projects and AMR India wherein Power Mech is the consortium leader with 74% equity stake and AMR India will hold 26%.

A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) - KBP Mining - has been formed to undertake the project.

Power Mech Projects is one of the leading industrial services and construction companies providing versatile and comprehensive services in power and infrastructure sectors.

Power Mech Projects share price ended the day up by 5.4% on the BSE.

Speaking of the current stock market scenario, note that the BSE Smallcap index touched life-time high recently.

Despite the index being up more than 157% since the March 2020 lows, Richa Agarwal, lead Smallcap Analyst at Equitymaster, believes smallcap stocks are set for a massive up move in 2021 and beyond.

Here's why...

As per Richa, the smallcap to Sensex ratio is a good metric to gauge while coming to some conclusions about relative valuations.

So, what is this indicator suggesting now?

As you can see from the chart below, the ratio currently stands at 0.46 times, as compared to long-term average of 0.43 times.

Here's what she wrote about it in a recent edition of Profit Hunter:

• In the last one year, the smallcaps have done well to cover the gaps with the large peers.
  
  But it could be premature to call this a peak.
  
  In the previous two rounds, the average ratio has been 0.57, suggesting more upside from these levels.

Richa believes if you focus on the quality of business, margin of safety in valuations, and an optimum asset allocation, you are likely to create huge wealth for yourself.

Moving on to news from the plastic products sector...

Finolex Industries Soars 15% After Reporting 5-Fold Jump in Profit

Shares of Finolex Industries jumped as much as 15% on the BSE today after the company put up a strong show in the March quarter.

India's largest manufacturer of PVC pipes and fittings reported a surge of 433.7% in net profit to Rs 3 bn in the fourth quarter compared to Rs 557.1 m in the same quarter a year ago.

Finolex reported a rise of 62.5% in the total income to Rs 12.5 bn in the quarter ended on 31 March 2021, against Rs 7.7 bn in the same quarter the previous year.

Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) for the quarter ended March 2021 was Rs 4.2 bn against Rs 1 bn during the previous year, up 305.3%.

For the financial year 2020-21, the company reported a net profit of Rs 7.3 bn, 125% higher than the net profit of Rs 3.2 bn reported in the previous fiscal.

Revenue during the period surged 16% to Rs 34.6 bn for the year 2021 from Rs 29.8 bn in the last year.

EBITDA for the financial year 2021 stood at Rs 10.6 bn, up 122% from Rs 4.8 bn reported in the last year.

The stock has rewarded investors recently. The counter is up by 43% in the last three months, while it has surged over 89% in the last one year.

The board of directors have recommended a final dividend of Rs 2 per equity share and an additional one-time special dividend of Rs 2 per equity share for this financial year.

We will keep you updated on the latest news from this space. Stay tuned!

Finolex Industries' share price ended the day up by 5% on the BSE.