Indian share markets continued their momentum during closing hours and ended the day on a positive note. Gains were largely seen in the telecom sector and realty sector.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 482 points (up 1.3%) and the NSE Nifty closed higher by 134 points (up 1.2%). The BSE Mid Cap index closed up by 0.6%, while the BSE Small Cap index ended the day up by around 1.1%.

Asian stock markets finished on a positive note as of the most recent closing prices. The Hang Seng stood up by 1.5% and the Nikkei was trading up by 1.8%.

European markets were trading on a mixed note. The FTSE 100 was down by 0.3%. The DAX was trading flat, while the CAC 40 was up by 0.2%.

The rupee was trading at 69.52 to US$ at the time of writing.

Speaking of Indian share markets in general, how do things look on the valuations front?

The Sensex price to earnings ratio has moved over the last five years. It has mostly been in a rising trend, except some intermittent declines.

But the Sensex tells a very a selective, skewed story of just the 30 largest companies.

So, it would be worth seeing the valuation trend of a much broader index.

Ankit Shah just did that and picked the NSE 500 for his latest study.

What he found was the NSE 500 index was trading cheap before the BJP came to power at the Centre in 2014. Since then, the price to earnings ratio of the index has been trending higher, like the Sensex.

It is interesting to note that the NSE 500 index has almost doubled between February 2014 and now. The price to earnings multiple of the index has gone up almost 70% during the same period, as can be seen from the chart below.

Market Valuations - 2014 to 2019

What does all of this mean?

Here's what Ankit wrote about it in today's edition of The 5 Minute WrapUp...

• What this means is that the gains have mostly come from valuation multiple expansion and only about 30% from earnings growth.
  
  While the NSE 500 P/E ratio is down 12% from its August 2018 high of 34.5, it's still quite on the higher side. 
  
  As such, I believe the key to the next bull run would be a good growth in earnings of listed Indian companies.

Whether this growth comes in, and how, remains to be seen. We will keep you updated on developments from this space.

In the news form the airlines space, Jet Airways share price was in focus today on reports that Etihad Airways and a new partner will together invest nearly Rs 40 billion to revive the airline. Also, the founder-promoter Naresh Goyal and his wife would step down from the board and all executive positions.

Yesterday, reports stated that the company received fresh loans of Rs 20.5 billion from Punjab National Bank (PNB).

As per an article in The Economic Times, the airline raised foreign currency term loans worth Rs 11 billion and a non-fund-based credit facility of Rs 9.5 billion from PNB. Jet Airways will use the credit facility for its working capital needs.

Furthermore, the board of directors of Etihad Airways, which owns a 24% stake in the company, will meet today to discuss a revival plan for the cash-strapped airline. Sources said Etihad will consider fund infusion into Jet under bank-led provisional resolution plan and the final decision will be taken later today.

Last week, the debt-laden airline was forced to ground four more aircraft due to non-payment of lease rental. With this, a total of 25 aircraft have been grounded in less than a month for unpaid dues, including the newly introduced Boeing 737 Max, Boeing 737 NG, and Airbus A330 planes.

The airline has been compelled to cancel nearly 200 domestic flights every day, approximately a third of the daily schedule of 600 flights.

Jet Airways had tried to lease or sell some of its owned aircraft to raise money that could help pare its over Rs 80 billion debt. But the plans, including a wet leasing deal with TruJet for its ATRs, got stuck.

As per an article in a leading financial daily, aircraft lessors have been supportive of the company's efforts in this regard. The company is also making all efforts to minimize disruption to its network due to the above and is proactively informing and re-accommodating its affected guests.

Moving on, in the news from the IPO space, the initial public offering of state-run e-commerce company MSTC is set to open tomorrow. The company is planning to raise Rs 2.3 billion through this IPO. The issue closes on March 15 and the company has fixed the price band of Rs 121-128 per share.

Incorporated in 1964, Kolkata based MSTC Limited is a PSU involved in the business trading of bulk-raw material and e-commerce service provider to government and government-controlled entities.

It was a canalizing agency for import of ferrous scrap until 1992 and established itself one of the leading e-commerce service providers in the country after de-canalization.

The company has also entered into the recycling business through a 50:50 joint venture with Mahindra Intertrade Limited (MIL) for setting up a shredding plant and collection centers across the country.

The three main business verticals of MSTC are (i) E-commerce, (ii) Trading, and (iii) Recycling.

We will keep you updated on all the developments from this space. Stay tuned.

Speaking of IPOs, 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.