Indian share markets ended on a flat note after they rose in the morning session as the Federal Reserve's less hawkish tone lifted investor sentiment.

Benchmark indices erased most of the intraday gains and ended on a flat note in the highly volatile session.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex added 33 points, ending 0.1% higher.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty was up 5 points, ending at 16,682.

Tech Mahindra, Infosys, and HCL Technologies were among the top gainers today.

IndusInd Bank, Sun Pharma, and Nestle were among the top losers today.

The broader markets ended in the red as the BSE Mid Cap index ended 0.2% lower while the BSE Small Cap index dipped 0.3%.

Stocks in the FMCG, pharma and realty witnessed most of the selling pressure while buying was seen in the IT, power, and capital goods sector.

Shares of Power Grid and ESAB India hit their 52-week high today.

Outside the home ground, Asian share markets posted mixed signals. While the Tokyo markets were closed on account of Children's day, the Hang Seng declined by 0.4%. The Shanghai Composite added 0.7%.

The SGX Nifty was trading 0.1% lower at the time of writing.

The rupee is trading at 76.22 against the US$.

Gold prices are currently trading up by 1.3% at Rs 51,253 per 10 grams while silver is also up 2.3% at Rs 63,068 per kg.

Speaking of gold, have a look at the chart below to see how gold has inched up ever since Russia invaded Ukraine.

Gold Prices Inching up since Russia Invaded Ukraine

Moving on to stock-specific news, L&T has bagged a contract for the bullet train project.

The railway business of the construction arm of L&T has secured a contract from the National High-Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL) to construct 116 route km of High-Speed ballast-less tracks.

The track work is a part of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High-Speed Rail (MAHSR) project, popularly referred to as the bullet train project.

A ballast-less track is a type of railway track infrastructure in which a rigid construction of concrete or asphalt is used in place of the traditional elastic combination of ties/sleepers and ballast.

Once completed, this slab track system will enable trains to travel at a speed of up to 320 km per hour.

The scope of work includes design, supply, construction, testing, and commissioning of track works on a design-build lump sum price basis for the double line high-speed railway between Vadodara and Sabarmati in Gujarat.

As per the company, the contract is valued between Rs 25 - 50 bn.

Currently, the company is executing various ballast-less track projects in multiple metro projects in India and overseas.

The shares of Larsen & Toubro ended 0.3% higher on the BSE today.

Coming to the latest developments from the IPO space, Delhivery shares nosedive in the unlisted market after the company fixed the price band for its initial public offering (IPO) at Rs 462-487 per share.

Shares of the logistic player were trading in the range of Rs 700-750 in the unlisted market just a few hours ahead of the announcement of the price band.

From the peak of Rs 950, apiece the scrip has eroded about half of the investor wealth. It plunged 35% in less than a day.

The scrip has a mandatory lock-in of six months trapping the investors who bought shares at higher levels.

Gurugram-based Delhivery is the largest fully integrated logistics services player in India by revenue.

The company will issue fresh equity shares worth Rs 40 bn and existing shareholders and promoters will offload shares worth Rs 12.4 bn.

The supply chain startup has slashed its offer size to Rs 52.4 bn from Rs 74.6 bn as planned earlier.

In other news from the IPO space, the overall subscription for LIC's mega IPO stood at 91% today.

The issue was led by policyholders and employees who respectively subscribed 2.8 times and 1.9 times the portion allocated for them.

The non-institutional investor segment gained some traction and was subscribed 0.4 times while the qualified institution segment witnessed only 0.3 subscriptions.

The retail segment though soured by the RBI hike was subscribed 0.8 times.

The grey market premium (GMP) for LIC shares plunged further on day 2 after the RBI announced a rate hike yesterday.

The GMP was on a steady rise during the past couple of days. It peaked at Rs 125 on the first day of the IPO opening.

The GMP of the shares has come down from near Rs 90 to Rs 60 today.

Note that the rate hike came after four years after the monetary policy committee (MPC) in April 2022 decided to do away with forwarding guidance and allow the central bank the flexibility to respond faster to economic conditions.

We will keep you updated on the latest developments in this space. Stay tuned.