Indian share markets witnessed positive trading activity throughout the day today and ended near-record high.

Benchmark indices extended gains as the session progressed amid buying seen across all sectors.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 318 points (up 0.6%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed higher by 82 points (up 0.5%).

The BSE Sensex hit a new high of 54,874 levels while the NSE Nifty scaled a new peak of 16,376.

Power Grid and Tech Mahindra were among the top gainers today.

Dr Reddy's Lab and IndusInd Bank, on the other hand, were among the top losers today.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 16,374, up by 91 points, at the time of writing.

The broader markets, too, stabilized after continuous sessions of decline as the BSE announced new framework.

The BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small-Cap index ended higher by 1.1% and 2%, respectively.

Barring energy, all sectoral indices ended in green with stocks in the power sector and IT sector witnessing most of the buying interest.

Shares of Gland Pharma and Mphasis hit their respective 52-week highs today.

Asian share markets failed to follow a strong close on Wall Street with fears about the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus weighing on sentiment.

The Hang Seng ended down 0.5% while the Shanghai Composite and the Nikkei ended down by 0.2%.

US stock futures are trading on a flat note today with the Dow Futures trading up by 47 points.

The rupee is trading at 74.42 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading on a flat note today at Rs 46,360 per 10 grams.

Gold was flat in domestic markets today following a muted trend in international spot prices.

In international markets, spot gold was flat at US$ 1,750.3 per ounce having recorded its biggest one-day percentage gain since 6 May on 11 August, a Reuters report said.

On 11 August, gold prices gained amid profit-taking in the dollar index after US CPI data.

Speaking of stock markets, Brijesh Bhatia talks about where the Nifty is headed, in his latest video for Fast Profits Daily.

In his previous video, he discussed the possibility of the Nifty forming of a top and that 16,057 was the key level to watch out for.

Now, that level has been decisively taken out.

But what now? Where will the Nifty go from here?

Brijesh answers this question in the video here.

Moving on to stock-specific news...

IRCTC was among the top buzzing stocks today.

IRCTC, the tourism, and catering arm of Indian Railways, reported a net profit of Rs 820 m for the June quarter.

The company had posted a loss of Rs 240 m in the year-ago period and a profit of Rs 1 bn in the March 2021 quarter.

IRCTC's revenue rose 85.4% to Rs 2.4 bn as compared to Rs 1.3 bn in the last year quarter.

Segment-wise, revenue from the catering segment fell 37% to Rs 560 m from Rs 890 m in the year-ago period.

Internet ticketing revenues rose more than 300% to Rs 1.5 bn, while that from the tourism category more than doubled to Rs 70 m.

IRCTC's board approved the proposal for a split of 1 share at a face value of Rs 10 each into 5 equity shares at a face value of Rs 2 each.

This is, however, subject to the approval of the Ministry of Railways.

Post the results and stock split announcement, the stock was up as much as 5% from a low of Rs 2,572 to a new 52-week high of Rs 2,728.

IRCTC's share price ended the day up by 4.6%.

Speaking of IRCTC, note that shares of the company have delivered substantial returns to their shareholders since listing.

If compared from its issue price of Rs 320, shares have soared more than six times.

At its current price, the company commands a market cap of Rs 430.4 bn.

It remains to be seen how IRCTC shares perform in the coming months as rail services open gradually.

Moving on to news from the FMCG sector, FMCG major ITC will invest US$2 bn (around Rs 150 bn) in the mid-term to expand capacity in FMCG, paper, packaging, agri-business, and update technology, chairman and managing director Sanjiv Puri said.

Addressing a virtual press conference today, Puri said the company is setting up new plants such as for spices which will cater to both exports and domestic markets, packaging plant in Gujarat since there are huge demand in that region from clients, a nicotine derivative plant and also adding new lines and upgrade existing ones.

The investment will also be to meet demand, make the organization more digitally enabled, and invest behind new vectors of growth in FMCG, sustainable packaging, and others.

ITC is looking for acquisitions across businesses and proactively in the FMCG business.

In FMCG, Puri said it could be in categories of future such as smart home solutions, health, wellness, hygiene, convenience food and indulgence.

Puri said this asset right strategy for the hotel business will enable the company to have an alternate structure which will be decided when the hospitality industry improves.

ITC's share price ended the day up by 0.2%.

Note that ITC is always the talk of the town, given its underperformance in recent times.

Recently, Co-head of Research at Equitymaster, Rahul Shah did an analysis on the stock and came to a conclusion.

Here's an excerpt of what he wrote:

• ITC investors on the other hand will keep earning their 5% dividend yield even with the stock market closed.
  
  And who knows, if things take a turn for the better, the dividend earnings may keep rising.
  
  This is why I believe ITC may have not only bottomed out now but also has a better risk-reward ratio than a lot of these market darlings trading at high PE ratios.