Photo by Big G Media on Unsplash

Indian share markets witnessed positive trading activity throughout the day today and ended on a strong note.

Benchmark indices staged a firm recovery tracking positive cues from global markets and took advantage of lower valuations following the massive sell-off in the previous session.

Global markets took a breather as the fresh US sanctions did not target Russia's oil exports nor their access to the Swift global payment network. However, the market will continue to remain volatile tracking new developments in the Russia-Ukraine war.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 1,329 points (up 2.4%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed higher by 410 points (up 2.5%).

Coal India and Tata Motors were among the top gainers today.

Britannia and Nestle India, on the other hand, were among the top losers today.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 16,695, up by 458 points, at the time of writing.

The BSE MidCap index and the BSE SmallCap index ended up by 4% and 4.2%, respectively.

Sectoral indices ended on a positive note with stocks in the realty sector, power sector and metal sector witnessing buying interest.

Shares of Fine Organic Industries hits its respective 52-week high today.

Asian stock markets ended on a positive note today.

The Hang Seng ended down by 0.6%, while the Shanghai Composite ended up by 0.6%. The Nikkei ended up by 2% in today's session.

US stock futures are trading on a negative note today with the Dow Futures trading down by 270 points.

The rupee is trading at 75.29 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading down by 1.2% at Rs 50,915 per 10 grams.

In news from the metal sector, Kirloskar Ferrous was among the top buzzing stocks today.

Kirloskar Ferrous Industries zoomed 7% to Rs 199.9 after the Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved the company's proposed acquisition of a majority stake in ISMT.

In November last year, Kirloskar Ferrous Industries (KFIL) said that it will acquire a majority stake in Indian Seamless Metal Tubes (ISMT) by subscribing to its equity shares through a preferential allotment and gain sole control over ISMT.

ISMT is the largest integrated specialized seamless tube manufacturer in India. It is one of the most diversified manufacturers of specialized seamless tubes in the world, producing tubes in the range of 6 to 273 mm diameter.

The company has alloy Steel plant in India that produces a wide range of alloy steels from 20 to 225 mm diameter. Their specialized teams provide end to end solutions to industry-specific customers.

Kirloskar Ferrous Industries is a leading pig iron manufacturer in India and producer of grey iron castings.

The company's standalone net profit declined 31.2% to Rs 814.3 m in the quarter ended December 2021 against Rs 1.2 bn during the previous quarter ended December 2020.

Sales rose 58.1% year on year (YoY) to Rs 9.3 bn in the December quarter of the financial year 2022.

Kirloskar Ferrous share price ended the day up by 6% on the BSE.

Moving on to news from the IT sector...

Infosys Launches Metaverse Foundry

Bengaluru-based IT services major Infosys launched Metaverse Foundry that will help its clients with adaptation, creation and also help scale the new technology.

The company has already developed 100 use cases and is actively working with clients on the same, said a top executive.

The move comes at a time when companies around the world are putting a huge focus on the metaverse. From Meta, formerly Facebook, and Microsoft, to IT services providers, the companies are investing significantly in the space.

Ravi Kumar S, President, Infosys, said that metaverse is no longer a buzz word, and will play an important role as we enter post pandemic era where people probably want to live in the hybrid of physical and virtual worlds.

'The reason why we came up with the concept of Metaverse Foundry is because while some consumer businesses know what the use cases are, a large number of our clients are curious. So, the Foundry is this experimental infrastructure where you can discover, create and scale,' he said.

The company has developed over 100 use cases and templates that people can help consumers discover, reuse some of those components and connect to the metaverse using the platforms of Infosys.

Ravi Kumar further said, 'Once you discover and create, we are hoping that you (clients) will scale with us. Therefore, we have the opportunity to help you scale that infrastructure over a period of time.'

The company is already working with few clients.

For instance, in sports, it worked with Roland Garros and Australian Open where they have created a virtual world where people can buy things around tennis, and bring them to the real world where you see the match, or bring the immersiveness of the stadium into the living spaces, which sometimes will be better than seeing it on the stadium.

However, these are still in early stages.

Infosys share price ended the day up by 1% on the BSE.

Speaking of the stock markets, a right investing process can help you win in the long term. It might offer some unexpected and undesirable results in the short term but lets you fare well when you average the outcomes.

According to Richa Agarwal, Senior Research Analyst at Equitymaster, any investment process should not be judged based on individual outcomes. Instead, it should have stood the test of the time.

Her smallcap service Hidden Treasure has had its fair share of failures. But sticking to a disciplined process meant that Hidden Treasure's internal rate of return (IRR) increased to 24.38% since inception. This compares favourably to the IRRs of 9.6% for the Sensex, and 8.8% for the smallcap index in the same period (February 2008 - June 2020) as can be seen in the chart below.

(Click on image to enlarge)