Indian share markets witnessed selling pressure throughout the day today and ended lower.

Benchmark indices slipped today following losses in global markets after the US Federal Reserve's policy-making committee indicated the overnight rate could stay close to zero for years to reach its 2% inflation target.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 323 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty ended down by 88 points.

Hindalco was the top loser in NSE. Meanwhile, the top gainers in NSE today include Dr Reddy's Laboratories and Zee Entertainment.

SGX Nifty was trading at 11,526, down by 90 points, at the time of writing.

The BSE Mid Cap index ended down by 0.2%. The BSE Small Cap index ended down by 0.5%.

On the sectoral front, realty stocks and banking stocks were among the hardest hit.

Asian stock markets ended on a negative note. As of the most recent closing prices, the Hang Seng ended down by 1.7% and the Shanghai Composite stood lower by 0.4%. The Nikkei ended down by 0.7%.

US stock futures are trading lower today, indicating a negative start for Wall Street indices.

Nasdaq Futures are trading down by 131 points (down 1.2%), while S&P Futures are trading down by 36 points (down 1%).

The rupee is trading at 73.66 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading down by 0.9% at Rs 51,370 per 10 grams. Over the last three weeks, gold is trading in a narrow range since hitting record highs of Rs 56,200 last month.

In news from the mutual fund's space, the market regulator is planning another set of reforms for mutual funds where it might revamp the mutual fund (MF) risk-o-meter.

As per an article in a leading financial daily, the market regulator will expand the MF risk-o-meter to include a "Very High" risk category.

The five existing categories of MFs are low, moderately low, moderate, moderately high, and high.

The article added that risk in equity funds will be assessed on the basis of three parameters - market capitalization, volatility, and impact cost.

Equity funds will be reclassified into the high and high-risk categories. All credit risk funds will be moved to the new very high-risk category.

The report added that credit risk funds will be judged on the basis of quality, duration, and liquidity of bonds.

Asset management companies (AMCs) will be required an annual timeline of how the risk has evolved in each fund. Any change in a scheme's underlying assets should reflect in the scheme's risk classification.

Note that the proposal comes shortly after the regulator on September 13 modified norms on asset allocation by multi-cap funds.

The circular mandates multi-cap equity schemes to allocate 25% each to large caps, mid caps, and small caps. The remaining 25% is up to the fund manager.

The regulator also issued a clarification on Sunday, suggesting that based on the preference of unit holders, mutual funds could consider rebalancing.

They also have an option to facilitate a switch for unitholders to other schemes. They could also merge the multi cap fund with a largecap fund or convert it to a large cap or midcap fund.

Assuming every fund rebalances, Friday's circular is expected to trigger a move of around Rs 280 billion from large caps to small caps.

Richa Agarwal, lead smallcap analyst at Equitymaster, believes this move would be net positive for select small cap stocks. As per Richa, there could be a speculative rally across small caps.

Moving on to stock-specific news...

Dhanuka Agritech was among the top buzzing stocks today.

Dhanuka Agritech share price rallied as much as 10% today, a day after the company approved the buyback of up to 10,00,000 equity shares at a final price of Rs 1,000 per share for an aggregate amount not exceeding Rs 1 billion.

The agrochemical company has fixed September 28, 2020, as the record date for the purpose of determining the entitlement and the names of equity shareholders who are eligible to participate in the buyback.

In other news, HSIL share price rallied over 10% after the company said it will consider share buyback next week.

The stock of the company hit its 52-week high, surpassing its previous high of Rs 71.35 hit on September 16, 2020.

"Meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company will be held on Monday, September 21, 2020, to consider the proposal of buyback of the fully paid-up equity shares of the Company," the company said in an exchange filing.

Speaking of buybacks, as a shareholder in cash-rich companies, you should not only be wary of expensive buybacks. But if possible use it to your advantage to rake in some cash.