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

Benchmark indices snapped their 3-day winning streak ahead of the March quarter GDP data, and amid tepid global cues.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 359 points, down 0.6%. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty fell 77 points.

M&M and NTPC were among the top gainers today. Sun Pharma and Kotak Bank, on the other hand, were among the top losers today.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 16,550, down by 81 points, at the time of writing.

Both, the BSE Midcap index and the BSE Smallcap index bucked the trend and ended higher by 0.5% and 0.7%, respectively.

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

Metal stocks, on the other hand, witnessed huge buying interest.

Sugar sector stocks were in focus today, days after the government decided to limit sugar exports.

Shares of AIA Engineering and Fine Organic Industries hit their respective 52-week highs today.

In this volatile market, a few penny stocks are continuously hitting their 52-week highs. Several Indian stocks have delivered multi-bagger returns in a span of one month.

But not all are worthy. Most of them are trading in uncharted territory and have become overvalued.

Asian share markets ended on a mixed note today. The Nikkei ended lower by 0.3% while the Hang Seng rallied by 1.4%.

US stock futures are trading in red indicating a negative opening for Wall Street indices with the Nasdaq Futures trading down by 42 points.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading up by 0.2% at Rs 51,001 per 10 grams.

The rupee is trading at 77.62 against the US$.

In news from the automobile sector, M&M's share price ended near its 52-week high after the company increased its mid-term capital expenditure (capex) for the automotive and farm equipment business by 27% or Rs 34 bn to Rs 153 bn till fiscal 2024.

This increased capex is fueled by a significant spike in demand for its SUVs and a strong electrification push.

It has raised capex for the automotive business by Rs 29 bn and another Rs 4 bn for the tractor business.

Even as the company is delivering over 5,000 units of XUV 700 on a monthly basis, the booking momentum is almost double and the cancellation rate to at a respectable 12.5% claimed Rajesh Jejurikar, ED at M&M.

Speaking of capex, note that in the Budget this year, capex got a boost of 35.4%.

Have a look at the chart below to see the budget capex over the years:

The increased capex is backed by the government's announcements on the production linked incentive (PLI) schemes.

Global supply chains are shifting away from China and India is a key beneficiary of that trend.

In news from the energy sector, GAIL was among the top buzzing stocks today.

Shares of GAIL rose over 2% today after the company announced big bang plans for its renewable energy focus.

The state-run company aims to step up spending on petrochemicals and the clean energy businesses even as it continues to invest in pipelines across the country, the company's chairman and MD Manoj Jain said in an interview.

The company plans to invest Rs 260 bn in its renewables portfolio by 2030.

The company has undertaken liquid hydrogen capacity addition and the progress done on the prototype will influence its overall investments, a call on which will be taken after 18 months.

At present, GAIL is in the process of procuring a 10 MW facility for liquid hydrogen, which would be the largest in the country.

In news from the corporate earnings space, shares of Jubilant FoodWorks, which operates Domino's Pizza and Dunkin' Donuts chains in India, fell 3% after the company reported an 8.8% decline in its consolidated net profit.

The company's bottom line figures were impacted by higher expenses.

For the full year ended March 2022, consolidated net profit came at Rs 4.2 bn as compared to Rs 2.3 bn in the previous year.

While posting the Q4 results, the company said it opened 80 new restaurants of Domino's Pizza in India, while in the whole year a total of 230 new restaurants were opened, taking the total to 1,567 restaurants as of 31 March 2022.

Jubilant FoodWorks share price ended 2.8% lower today.

Moving on to news from the engineering space, shares of Varroc Engineering tumbled over 5% today as the auto manufacturer and supplier reported a wider net loss in January-March than the previous year.

The company reported a net loss of Rs 2.8 bn for the quarter ended March 2022 against a net loss of Rs 1.4 bn in the same quarter last year.

Revenue from operations stood at Rs 16.5 bn in the March 2022 quarter as compared to Rs 15.1 bn in the same quarter a year earlier.

For the financial year ended March 2021-22, net loss increased to Rs 11.1 bn as against a net loss of Rs 6.3 bn in fiscal 2021.

The company said the government has approved its application for the PLI scheme and it will be investing around Rs 2.8 bn over five years under the scheme.