Indian share markets witnessed volatile trading activity today and ended on a flat note.

Benchmark indices scaled fresh lifetime highs earlier in the day before turning volatile ahead of the expiry of December series derivative contracts.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 5 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty ended up by 1 point.

HDFC was among the top gainers today. TCS, on the other hand, was among the top losers today.

SGX Nifty was trading at 14,014, up by 36 points, at the time of writing.

The BSE Mid Cap index ended up by 0.2%. The BSE Small-Cap index ended higher by 0.4%.

Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note with stocks in the realty sector and consumer durable sector buying interest.

FMCG stocks and telecom stocks, on the other hand, witnessed selling pressure.

Both benchmarks, Sensex and Nifty logged their highest annual gains since 2017 and ended with double-digit gains for the second straight year. The BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty surged 16% and 15%, respectively, in 2020.

News on vaccine development and measures from global central banks to cushion the economic fallout from the crisis have helped the indexes log annual gains.

Asian stock markets ended on a positive note after the announcement of a trade deal with the European Union.

Official data released today also showed activity in China's service and factory sector expanding in December.

The Nikkei ended down by 0.5% while the Shanghai Composite ended higher by 1.7%. The Hang Seng ended up by 0.3%.

US stock futures are trading flat. Nasdaq Futures are trading up by 3 points, while Dow Futures are trading down by 45 points (down 0.1%).

European shares fell today as lockdowns and rising COVID-19 cases overshadowed the optimism around the rollout of vaccines in the New Year.

The rupee is trading at 73.05 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading up by 0.1% at Rs 50,190 per 10 grams.

Speaking of stock markets, in his latest video, Co-head of Research at Equitymaster, Rahul Shah talks about his preferred portfolio for 2021 and beyond.

In the video, Rahul shares his portfolio strategy and the important principles one needs to keep in mind in order to build a market-beating portfolio.

Tune in here to find out more:

In the latest developments from the IPO space, Antony Waste Handling Cell shares traded at more than 30% premium in the grey market ahead of its listing scheduled on January 1.

The trading premium in the grey market on December 30 was Rs 100-120 per share over its issue price of Rs 315, the grey market data showed.

Antony Waste Handling Cell, one of the top five players in the Indian municipal solid waste (MSW) management industry, will debut on bourses tomorrow after its IPO received 15 times subscription during December 21-23.

The Rs 3-billion IPO comprised of a fresh issue of Rs 850 million and an offer for sale of Rs 2.2 billion by existing shareholders Leeds (Mauritius), Tonbridge (Mauritius), Cambridge (Mauritius), and Guildford (Mauritius).

How shares of the company perform on listing day remains to be seen.

Moving on to stock-specific news...

Greenpanel Industries was among the top buzzing stocks today.

Greenpanel Industries' share price surged 5% to hit its 52-week high after the company's board approved capital expenditure (capex) of Rs 550 million at its medium-density fibreboard (MDF) plants for better productivity and cost-efficiency.

The company said it will spend Rs 290 million for the installation of mat heating system and Rs 260 million on the installation of a wax emulsion system.

The capital expenditure shall be funded through a mix of internal accruals and debts.

The company said its business has improved considerably in the July-September quarter (Q2FY21). MDF volumes have grown by 31.3% year-on-year (YoY) and operating margins have improved by 220 basis points (bps) to 21.8%.

In the past three months, shares of the company have rallied as much as 160%.

Moving on to news from the automobile sector, auto stocks continued their upward trend today ahead of December 2020 sales data which will be announced in the first week of January 2021.

As per a leading financial daily, a low base because of last year's de-stocking is likely to aid the December wholesale numbers.

The report added that almost all segments are likely to show decent YoY growth in sales. But given that it's a slow season for commercial vehicles, dispatches in this segment could still be soft. Three-wheeler sales are likely to remain sluggish, still, the low base of last year should support growth.

India's largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki's domestic wholesale numbers are expected to show a growth of about 5-7%.

On the two-wheeler front, sales are expected to remain high, while some companies are could see double-digit growth. Some states are showing better growth, which has been largely been coming from rural areas.

Commercial vehicles are likely to remain slow. Ashok Leyland is expected to report a flat growth over last year.

Auto stocks were also in focus after it was reported that American clean-energy and electric-vehicle (EV) company Tesla will begin its operations in India in 2021.

After a significant delay of four years, Tesla will go to the Indian car market by June 2021. Minister for Road Transport & Highways and the minister of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) Nitin Gadkari confirmed this news and said, "Tesla will start operations first with sales and then maybe look at assembly and manufacturing based on the response to the cars".

The minister said that Tesla will begin its operations with sales first and then maybe look at assembly and manufacturing based on the response to the cars.

He added that India is going to become a number 1 manufacturing hub for auto in five years.

Earlier this year in October, Tesla CEO Elon Musk had recommended that the organization will come to India in 2021.

Note that Tesla has become one of the leading companies in the electric car market. As per reports, Tesla will launch its new Model "Tesla Model 3".

The entry-level Tesla electric car gets a lithium-ion battery with dual electric motors and offers a range of up to 518 km on a single charge.

In other news from the EV space, MG Motor and Tata Power today installed a 60 kW superfast public EV charging station in Coimbatore, the first in the city and also Tamil Nadu.

The latest public EV charging station is available to all vehicles compatible with CCS (Combined Charging System) fast-charging standard and is in line with MG's commitment to provide a 5-way charging ecosystem to its customers.

The initiative is part of MG's recent partnership with Tata Power for the deployment of 50 kW and 60 kW DC Superfast Charging Stations across India.

We will keep you posted on more updates from this space. Stay tuned.

Speaking of electric vehicles, note that the power ministry has approved setting up 2,636 electric vehicle charging stations across 62 cities in 24 states.

Here's what co-head of Research at Equitymaster, Tanushree Banerjee wrote about electric vehicles in one of her editions of Profit Hunter:

• 106 public and private entities have approached the government for permissions to set up about 7,000 EV charging stations.
  
  This clearly shows the vehicle manufacturers have enough incentive to capture this latent demand.
  
  The tax benefit in terms of a lower GST rate (at 5%) is a further shot in the arm of the EV industry.

As per Tanushree, electric vehicles are very much on their way to invading Indian roads. The threat of disruption in this era is something you cannot ignore.

Tanushree believes one of the companies manufacturing lithium-ion batteries for powering electric cars will be a key catalyst for the Rebirth of India.