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

Benchmark indices rose for the third consecutive day today, backed by solid gains in select index heavyweights and IT stocks.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 221 points (up 0.4%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed higher by 52 points (up 0.3%).

HCL Tech and HDFC were among the top gainers today.

Tata Steel and Bajaj Finance, on the other hand, were among the top losers today.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 18,095, up by 46 points, at the time of writing.

The BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap index ended up by 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively.

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

Metal stocks and telecom stocks, on the other hand, witnessed huge selling. The BSE metal index fell as much as 2.8%.

Shares of SRF and Adani Enterprises hit their respective 52-week highs today.

Asian stock markets struggled to find direction as investors awaited Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's appearance before the Senate Banking Committee, hoping for clues to the timing of expected policy tightening.

The Hang Seng ended down by 0.1% while the Nikkei plunged 0.9%. The Shanghai Composite fell 0.7%.

US stock futures are trading on a positive note today with the Dow Jones Futures trading up by 112 points.

The rupee is trading at 73.87 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading up by 0.2% at Rs 47,549 per 10 grams.

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

Shares of Vodafone Idea plunged over 20% today following its decision to convert AGR liability to equity. While this secures the company and its consumers, it is not great news for shareholders as it would result in quite a big dilution.

The government would acquire the stake at Rs 10 a share against yesterday's closing price of Rs 14.85.

In an update released before market hours, Vodafone Idea said it has exercised the option of paying interest for the four years of deferment on the deferred spectrum installments and AGR dues by way of conversion into equity of the net present value (NPV) of such interest amount.

While the company's decision to opt for conversion of interest into equity does not necessarily result in any significant liability reduction, the government's presence increases the likelihood of long-term survival.

As a part of the relief package in October 2021, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had laid out various options for clearing the statutory dues, following which, Vodafone Idea opted for deferring payment of spectrum auction installments & AGR dues by 4 years.

However, telecom companies were also required to pay interest on these dues during the moratorium period. The DoT had further given a 90-day window to telcos for deciding whether want to opt for converting the interest amount pertaining to the moratorium period into equity.

Also, Vodafone's move is against its peer Bharti Airtel which recently said it would not opt for conversion of interest on deferred spectrum and adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues into equity.

Post conversion, the government would likely hold around 35.8% of the total outstanding shares and become the largest shareholder. Vodafone Group would have 28.5% and Aditya Birla group would be owning a 17.8% stake.

Shares of Vodafone Idea ended the day down by 20.5%.

Moving on to news from the defense sector, Prime Minister Narendra Modi led government is going to shelve a number of defense import projects being acquired through the Buy (Global) route.

Buy Global category means that defense forces can fully import the item from foreign vendors. Now first preference would be given to the acquisition of Indian Developed Designed and Manufactured (IDDM) products.

This is a major push towards Aatmanirbhar Bharat in the defense sector.

This initiative comes at a time when the government is coming up with the new Defence Production and Export Promotion Policy which will lay down the way ahead for strengthening defense production and help in their export to friendly foreign countries.

A high-level meeting of the Defence Ministry will take place virtually tomorrow in which all the import projects under Buy (Global) category would be reviewed and are likely to be scrapped or put on hold by the government.

The major push for 'Make in India' is going to ensure that projects worth several thousand crores would be given to the Indian manufacturers.

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

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:

According to a SIPRI report, India was the third-largest military spending country in the world in 2019.