Asian share markets advanced to one-week highs, led largely by strong US corporate earnings, although the mood remained cautious as the rapidly spreading Delta variant of the coronavirus clouds the global economic outlook.

The Hang Seng is up 1.5% while the Shanghai Composite is trading higher by 0.6%. The Nikkei is trading down by 0.3%.

Overnight on Wall Street, all three benchmark indices settled higher.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.8%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.6%.

Back home, Indian share markets have opened on a strong note.

Benchmarks indices started today's session on a strong note amid buying interest in financials and IT stocks.

Market participants will track shares of SBI, Titan, Godrej Consumer, HPCL, and PNB Housing Finance, as these companies are slated to report their June quarterly results later today.

The BSE Sensex is trading up by 415 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading higher by 114 points.

The Sensex rose as much as 400 points to touch the 54,000 mark for the first time.

HDFC and ICICI Bank are among the top gainers today. Bharti Airtel, on the other hand, is among the top losers today.

The BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap index had opened higher by 0.3% and 0.5%, respectively.

Sectoral indices are trading mixed with stocks in the metal sector and finance sector witnessing buying interest.

Telecom stocks, on the other hand, are trading in the red.

Shares of Infosys and ACC hit their 52-week highs today.

The rupee is trading at 74.17 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading down by 0.3% at Rs 47,900 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices are trading down by 0.1% at Rs 67,845 per kg.

In news from the automobile sector, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways on Tuesday said it has issued a notification to exempt battery-operated vehicles from the payment of fees for issue or renewal of registration certificate.

In a statement, the ministry said it has also exempted battery-operated vehicles from the payment of fees for the assignment of new registration marks.

This has been notified to encourage e-mobility, it added.

In other news, Tesla's recent request to the government of India to reduce tax on the import of electric vehicles has been met by stiff opposition.

Krishan Pal Gurjar, a junior minister in the BJP-led government said in the Parliament,

• No such proposal is under consideration in the Ministry of Heavy Industries.

The American EV-maker had requested the government to put the EV in the lower 40% tax bracket, so that its vehicles could be competitively priced in India and consequently, more widely adopted.

Its request was backed up by Hyundai.

Within the last year, Tesla has officially registered itself in India and also set up an office here.

The premium EV-maker is expected to enter the Indian market by the end of 2021 with the Model 3.

Elon Musk had previously revealed that following the successful debut of Tesla vehicles, the next logical step would be to set up a gigafactory in India. This would further help reduce the cost of its vehicles here.

However, with the government's latest stance on the reduction in import duty, Tesla could choose to alter its point of view.

While the American EV-maker hasn't said anything about this latest development, it could alter its timelines to enter the Indian market.

We will keep you updated on the latest developments in 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.

Moving on to stock-specific news...

Bharti Airtel is among the top buzzing stocks today.

Bharti Airtel has posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 2.8 bn in the April-June quarter, a sharp fall sequentially with its India wireless business dragged by Covid-induced lockdowns which led to the telco losing users.

Net profit for the quarter fell from Rs 7.6 bn in the January-March period, with muted average revenue per user (ARPU) growth due to a sharp slowdown in 4G net user adds because of the Covid second wave.

The telco had posted a loss of Rs 159.3 bn a year back.

Bharti Airtel's profit was its third successive quarter in the black after six straight losses.

ARPU, a key performance parameter for telcos, grew to Rs 1.5 bn.

Consolidated revenue grew 4.3% sequentially, and 15% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 268.5 bn.

Airtel's overall India revenues increased 11% YoY to Rs 188.3 bn, which was also higher than Rs 183.4 bn reported in the previous quarter.

During the quarter, Airtel lost 135,000 users on a net basis to end with 321.23 m users.

Its total quarterly net 4G user adds too fell to 5.3 m from 13.7 m recorded in the January-March period, and 12.9 m in October-December.

Its competitor Reliance Jio, though, was largely unaffected by Covid and saw good traction on customer acquisitions, adding as many as 14.4 m 4G users in the June quarter.

Bharti Airtel share price has opened the day down by 1.6%.