Samvat 2077 began on a positive note for Indian share markets today as the auspicious Muhurat trading session ended on a strong note. Benchmark indices witnessed buying interest and ended their session at record high levels.

At the closing bell today, the BSE Sensex closed higher by 194 points (up 0.5%). The NSE Nifty ended higher by 50 points (up 0.4%). Stocks from the oil & gas sector and telecom sector were the most in demand. The BSE Mid Cap Index ended up by 0.6%. The BSE Small Cap Index ended up by 0.8%.

Stocks such as BPCL, Tata Motors (TTM), and Sun Pharma were the top gainers in today's Muhurat trading session. On the other hand, Hindalco and Hero MotoCorp were the top losers. Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX were trading flat at Rs 50,922 per 10 grams.

Also, speaking of the current stock market scenario, note that Indian share markets have climbed back to their highest levels since the pandemic began. The Sensex is trading above the 43,500-mark. Meanwhile, the Nifty is less than 300 points away to hit the 13,000-mark. The smallcap index is up more than 70% since March 23.

As per Richa Agarwal, lead smallcap analyst at Equitymaster, there could still be a lot of steam left to this smallcap rebound rally. Have a look at the history of previous smallcap crashes and rebounds over the last two decades.

As you can see, every big fall in the smallcap index was followed by a sharp up move, a minimum gain 200%. Twice the rebounds were just shy of touching 300%.

In news from the financial markets space, India's foreign exchange reserves jumped by a massive US$ 7.779 billion to touch a lifetime high of US$ 568.494 billion in the week ended November 6, according to RBI data showed on Friday.

In the reporting week, the jump in reserves was mainly on account of an increase in foreign current assets (FCAs), a major component of the overall reserves. FCAs increased by US$ 6.403 billion to US$ 524.742 billion, the central bank's weekly data showed.

In the previous week ended October 30, the reserves had increased by US$ 183 million to US$ 560.715 billion. Meanwhile, gold reserves rose by US$ 1.328 billion to US$ 37.587 billion in the week ended November 6.

Moving on to stock specific news, HDFC Bank (HDB) and IndusInd Bank were among the top buzzing stocks today. Private sector lenders HDFC Bank and IndusInd Bank have been put in the so-called 'red flag' list, a system used for monitoring foreign portfolio investor (FPI) limits. A listed company enters the list when the available legroom for overseas investment is less than 3% of the permissible limit.

FPIs can invest up to 74% in both HDFC Bank and IndusInd Bank. The current FPI shareholding in case of HDFC Bank is 71.3% while that of IndusInd Bank is 73.1%. Besides these two, Novartis India and Procter & Gamble Hygiene and Health Care (PG) are the only other companies in the red-flag list.

Once a stock enters this list, incremental FPI buying is permitted on condition that overseas investors will divest their excess holdings within five trading days from the day of breach of the sectoral cap of 74%. HDFC Bank share price and IndusInd Bank share price ended the day down up 0.8% and 0.2%, respectively.

Market participants were also tracking Tata Steel share price in today's session. The stock of the company witnessed buying interest in today's Muhurat trading session, a day after the company posted a 59.6% year-on-year (YoY) fall in Q2FY21 profit at Rs 16.3 billion against Rs 40.4 billion in the corresponding quarter a year ago.

Total revenue from operations stood at Rs 371.5 billion against Rs 345.7 billion YoY. EBITDA stood at Rs 62.2 billion against Rs 38.9 billion YoY. Tata Steel share price ended the day up by 1.2% on the BSE today.