Asian stock markets swung between positive and negative territory as investors remained cautious about a new virus strain and US monetary policy moves over inflation.

The Hang Seng zoomed 1.3% while the Shanghai Composite gained 0.1%. The Nikkei advanced 0.8%.

In US stock markets, Wall Street indices closed lower on Tuesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled that the US central bank would consider speeding up its withdrawal of bond purchases as inflation risks increase.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 1.9% while the Nasdaq tumbled 1.6%.

Back home, Indian share markets have opened on a strong note. Riding on positive Asian cues, and GDP data, benchmark indices advanced over 1% in early trade.

Markets staged a gap-up opening on the back of strong GDP growth of over 8% in the second quarter. With this, India continues to remain the fastest growing large economies in the world.

The BSE Sensex is trading up by 554 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading higher by 151 points.

IndusInd Bank and HDFC are among the top gainers today.

Dr. Reddy's Lab, on the other hand, is among the top losers today.

The BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap index are trading higher by 0.3% and 0.1%, respectively.

Sectoral indices are trading mixed with stocks in the metal sector and automobile sector witnessing most of the buying.

Power stocks and healthcare stocks, on the other hand, are trading in red.

Shares of Rajesh Exports and KPIT Technologies hit their 52-week highs today.

The rupee is trading at 74.96 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading up by 0.1% at Rs 47,606 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices are trading at Rs 61,646 per kg.

Crude oil prices clawed back some losses today after steep falls in the previous session, as major producers prepared to discuss how to respond to the threat of a hit to fuel demand from the Omicron variant.

In news from the IPO space, the initial public offering (IPO) of Tega Industries, a manufacturer of consumables for the mining industry, has opened for subscription today and will conclude on 3 December.

The company is looking to raise over Rs 6 bn through a public listing of shares, which is entirely an offer for sale (OFS) of 13 m equity shares by promoters and existing shareholders.

The company's shares are trading at a premium of Rs 310 per share in the grey market.

Tega Industries provides customized solutions to the mining, bulk material handling and transportation industry like manufacturing of wear resistant lining components required for grinding, sizing and others.

It has a product portfolio of more than 55 mineral processing and material handling products. The company has six manufacturing sites, including three in India and three sites in major mining hubs of Chile, South Africa and Australia.

In other news, a majority of domestic mutual funds skipped the share sale of Star Health & Insurance before the IPO on account of differences over valuations.

The Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed insurer's Rs 72.5-bn IPO, the third largest in 2021, raised Rs 32.2 bn from 62 funds as part of the anchor allotment on Monday but only one mutual fund participated in the process. Edelweiss Mutual Fund's scheme which invests in IPOs put Rs 148.8 m in the anchor allotment.

Reportedly, mutual funds had raised concerns about rich valuations in the company's IPO roadshows.

Star Health's issue was subscribed 12% on the first day of bidding on Tuesday. While the retail portion saw bids for 64%, the qualified institutional investors and high net worth individual categories were yet to be subscribed.

Star is the largest retail health insurer with 31% market share. The company has posted a loss of Rs 8.3 bn for the year ended March 2021, compared to a profit of Rs 2.7 bn in fiscal 2021.

How these IPOs sail through remains to be seen.

Moving on to stock specific news...

NMDC is among the top buzzing stocks today.

State-owned mining company NMDC on Tuesday slashed prices of lump ore by Rs 750 a tonne and fines Rs 200 per tonne, with immediate effect.

In a regulatory filing, the company said it has revised the rates of lump ore or higher grade ore to Rs 5,200 a tonne.

While the price of lump ore or low-grade ore has been fixed at Rs 4,560 per tonne.

The prices are excluding royalty, district mineral fund, cess, forest permit fee and other taxes, NMDC said in a filing.

On 5 November, the company had fixed the rates of lump ore at Rs 5,950 per tonne, and that of fines at Rs 4,760 a tonne, with effect from 4 November 2021.

Note that iron ore is the key steel making raw material. A change in its prices has a direct impact on the rates of steel. NMDC is the country's largest iron ore-producing company.

NMDC share price is currently trading up by 1.4%.

Speaking of PSUs, have a look at the chart below which shows the performance of BSE PSU index compared to BSE Sensex over the past few years.

As can be seen from the chart above, over the last decade, Rs 100 invested in BSE PSU index would have eroded to Rs 80, compared to almost 3x gains for the Sensex.