Indian share markets witnessed volatile trading activity throughout the day today and ended with mixed sentiments.

Benchmark indices ended the day on a flat note after they witnessed some selling during closing hours amid rising coronavirus cases in the country and mixed global cues.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood up by 42 points (up 0.1%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty ended up by 45 points (up 0.3%).

Adani Ports and Tata Consumer Products were among the top gainers.

Grasim and Power Grid Corp were among the top losers today.

Maruti Suzuki and SBI cards were among the top buzzing stocks today.

SGX Nifty was trading at 14,760, up by 38 points, at the time of writing.

The BSE Mid cap index and the BSE Small cap index ended up by 1% and 0.8%, respectively.

On the sectoral front, healthcare stocks and FMCG stocks witnessed most of the buying interest.

Asian share markets ended on a mixed note today. The Shanghai Composite ended flat, while the Hang Seng ended higher by 1.9%.

US stock futures are trading positive today with the Dow Jones Futures trading up by 222 points.

The rupee is trading at 73.42 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading up 0.4% today at Rs 45,547 per 10 grams.

Speaking of the current stock market scenario, note that the Nifty witnessed a huge fall yesterday.

After the recent volatility in the market, the fears of a correction have only grown and those who were bullish a few days ago are turning bearish.

But is this the right way to think about trading? How should you react to this?

Moving on to stock-specific news...

Adani group has surpassed US$ 100 billion in market capitalization to become India's third-largest conglomerate.

On Tuesday, 6th April 2021, 4 out of six Adani group listed companies hit their 52-week highs.

According to BSE data, the total market capitalization of the six listed Adani group companies adds up to US$ 104 billion.

The two conglomerates ahead of the Adani group in terms of market capitalization are the Tata group and the Reliance group.

The recent surge in share prices of Adani group stocks was the result of expanding rapidly into multiple operations by many group companies that led to earnings visibility in the future.

Adani Airports, a subsidiary of Adani Enterprises, last month acquired a 23.5% stake at Mumbai airport. It also won the mandate to renovate and operate six airports - Ahmedabad, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Jaipur, Guwahati, and Thiruvananthapuram for 50 years through a global tender process conducted by the Indian Airports Authority.

In the last five months, Adani Ports has done four acquisitions with a combined value of Rs 180 billion.

The share price of Adani Enterprises and Adani Ports ended the day higher by 7% and 9%, respectively, on BSE today.

We will keep you posted on all the news from this space. Stay tuned!

In news from the media sector...

The resurgence of COVID-19 cases has dragged the share price of Inox Leisure, PVR, and other multiplex operators drastically in the last two trading sessions.

Shares of Inox Leisure, PVR, and other multiplex operators, dropped today as the Maharashtra government imposed lockdown over the weekend and closed cinema halls amid a spike in coronavirus cases.

The shutdown of theatres across Maharashtra has forced the production houses to push the release date of major movies which led to a sharp fall in these stocks.

Out of the total box office collection earned from Hindi films, Maharashtra contributes around 30% of revenue from operations.

Yesterday the share price of Inox Leisure and PVR fell by 4% and 5%, respectively after the government announced that theatres will remain closed till 30 April.

Movie theatre, multiplexes, and cinema have already taken a huge financial toll as they remained shut following the nationwide coronavirus lockdown that started in late March. They were only allowed to reopen starting mid-October 2020 with limited capacity.

It was expected that occupancies would get standardized from the second half of this financial year, with the release of new movies, pent-up demand, and the festive season.

However, as the number of new cases in the second wave reaches the peak of the first wave, there will be further delays in the recovery of the industry.

We'll have to wait and watch what effect this development has on media companies in the months to come.

Speaking about the novel coronavirus, it has affected many businesses aggressively which also led to a massive stock market downfall in March 2020.

It triggered a humongous wipeout of investors' wealth in the first wave, as can be seen in the chart below.

Coronavirus Triggers Massive Wipeout of Investor Wealth

As we can see, though most of January and February, the total market capitalization hovered between Rs 150-160 trillion.

It was only in the last week of February 2020 that a massive sell-off started on rising fears of the coronavirus outbreak escalating into a global pandemic.

The total market capitalization of BSE-listed companies closed at about Rs 146 trillion.

By 13 March 2020, this figure plunged even lower to Rs 129 trillion.

Do you think that the second wave will cause similar disruptions for the stock market as the first wave of COVID-19?

We will keep you updated on that in the coming days. Stay tuned!