Indian share markets continued to trade near the dotted line during closing hours and ended the day marginally lower. Losses were largely seen in the capital goods sector and energy sector.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 64 points (down 0.2%) and the NSE Nifty closed lower by 9 points (down 0.1%). The BSE Mid Cap index closed up by 0.4%, while the BSE Small Cap index ended the day down by 0.1%.

Asian stock markets finished on a mixed note as of the most recent closing prices. The Hang Seng stood down by 0.2% and the Nikkei was trading up by 0.1%. The Shanghai Composite stood lower by 0.1%.

European markets were also trading on a mixed note. The FTSE 100 was up by 1%. The DAX was down by 0.1% while the CAC 40 was up by 0.4%.

The rupee was trading at 71.10 to the US$ at the time of writing.

Speaking of Indian share markets, there has been a steady rise in direct participation by Indians in stock markets as can be seen in the chart below.

Direct Participation in Stock Markets is Growing Steadily

This increased participation has resulted in not just money flowing into mutual funds, but also in the opening of demat accounts.

In fact, the attractiveness of Indian equities and the fact that investing in demat accounts is now very easy has led to a steady rise in accounts.

What more, this trend is all set to continue, as the Indian stock markets scale new highs in the coming years.

In the news from the IPO space, the IPO of Chalet Hotels Ltd was subscribed around 4% till noon hours today - its first day of the bidding process.

The issue has received demand for a total of 17,59,123 shares so far against an issue size of 4,13,26,672 shares.

The company on Monday raised Rs 492 crore from 27 anchor investors.

The company launched its initial public offering (IPO) today and will close it on January 31, 2019, with a price band of Rs 275 - Rs 280 per equity share of face value of Rs 10 each.

Chalet Hotels is an owner, developer and asset manager of high-end hotels in key metro cities in India. Its hotel platform comprises five operating hotels, including a hotel with a co-located serviced residence, located in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru, representing 2,328 keys, as of 31 March 2018.

The company generally develops its hotels in strategic, high-density locations on large land parcels, allowing it to situate a greater number of rooms, as well as provide a wide range of amenities, such as fine dining and specialty restaurants, large banquet and outdoor spaces.

The company's hotels are branded with globally recognized hospitality brands and are in the luxury-upper upscale and upscale hotel segments.

To know our view on the IPO of Chalet Hotels Ltd, you can read our entire IPO analysis here (subscription required).

Speaking of IPO's, according to an article in The Economic Times, Indian stock exchanges ranked second globally in terms of IPOs, raising US$ 5.52 billion from 161 offerings till November this year. The US ranked first, raising US$ 60 billion from 261 IPOs.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

• According to the report, the drop in IPOs could be attributed to reasons such as significant corrections in the stock markets in mid-cap and small-cap stocks.
  
  Further, the amount of volatility has increased due to uncertainties around global growth compounded by the ongoing US-China trade wars.
  
  In addition, there are a number of macroeconomic factors which are contributing uncertainties such as liquidity crises among non-bank lenders in India triggered by defaults done by a leading infrastructure finance company IL&FS and currency volatility (depreciation of the rupee), the report added.

With so many IPOs set to hit the markets, we at Equitymaster believe a merit-based selection, primarily including valuation, business, and management quality, is the logical way to go about investing in IPOs.

If it means going against the herd, so be it. And going by recent past, this strategy has been proven to be successful more often.

To know how to safely profit from the ongoing IPO rush, download this FREE report now and discover How to Get Rich with IPOs.

In other news, HDFC share price was in focus today as the mortgage lender reported a 60.1% year-on-year (YoY) drop in profit at Rs 21.1 billion for the quarter ended December 2018. The lender had reported Rs 53 billion profit in the year-ago quarter.

Most of the above underperformance came as the company had reported a one-time gain in the year-ago quarter. During December quarter of 2017, the company reported Rs 52.6 billion in profit on sale of investments.

For the quarter ended December 2018, revenue from operations rose 20.4% to Rs 104.5 billion against Rs 86.7 billion in the year-ago period.

Net interest income (NII) for the quarter rose 16.6% to Rs 31.9 billion compared with Rs 27.3 billion in the same quarter last year.

The lender made Rs 1.1 billion in provisions for the quarter, which was lower than Rs 4 billion in the September quarter.

Moving on to the news from the airlines sector, as per a leading financial daily, State Bank of India (SBI) is all likely to own 15% of Jet Airways stake, as the airline looks to convert debt into equity.

The stake of Naresh Goyal may fall below 20% from 51% post the fresh share issuance, while that of Etihad may go above 40% from 24% as it infuses money equity.

Shareholders of the airline are all set to vote on February 21 on a proposal floated by the company to issue new equity and preference shares and convert a part of existing debt into equity.

The airline will also be asking shareholders to allow its lenders to nominate directors to its board.

The above developments come as the airline's founder-chairman Naresh Goyal is negotiating a debt restructuring and fundraising plan.

According to reports, a proposal to bring down Goyal's stake to less than 20% from 51% was being discussed.

The airline has proposed to raise authorized share capital to Rs 22 billion. This would comprise Rs 6.8 billion of equity capital and Rs 15.2 billion of preference share capital.

The airline has a debt of over Rs 82 billion and a consortium of banks led by State Bank of India is working on a resolution plan after it defaulted on its principal and interest payments for the December-end quarter.

How this pans out remains to be seen. Meanwhile, we will keep you updated on all the developments from this space.