Asian stock markets are trading on a mixed note today as investors were wary of bearish surprises in a batch of Chinese economic data due out later.

Annual growth in retail sales, industrial output, and urban investment are all expected to slow further in October partly due to pandemic restrictions and strains in the housing market.

The Hang Seng is down 0.3%, while the Shanghai Composite is trading down by 0.2%. The Nikkei is trading up by 0.4%.

In US stock markets, Wall Street indices gained on Friday as investors shrugged off disappointing economic data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 179 points or 0.5% and the Nasdaq composite closed up 157 points, or 1%.

Back home, Indian share markets have opened on a strong note, following the trend on SGX Nifty.

Shares of Rajesh Exports, Tinplate Company, East India Securities, and Aditya Birla Money are closely watched as these companies will announce their September quarter results today.

Meanwhile, three IPOs are listed on the bourses today - PB Fintech (Policybazaar), SJS Enterprises, and Sigachi Industries. The IPOs of all three companies were open for subscription between 1-3 November.

The BSE Sensex is trading up by 206 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading higher by 55 points.

Power Grid and ITC are among the top gainers today. Tata Steel, 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 0.4% and 0.1%, respectively.

Barring metal stocks, all sectoral indices are trading in green with stocks in the pharma sector and banking sector witnessing most of the buying.

Shares of Page Industries and Tata Elxsi hit their 52-week highs today.

The rupee is trading at 74.36 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading down by 0.3% at Rs 49,149 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices are trading down by 1% at Rs 66,464 per kg.

Gold eased today, pulling back from a more than five-month peak hit in the last session, as a firm dollar dimmed its appeal.

Crude oil prices skidded today, under pressure from expectations of higher supplies and weakening demand.

In news from the retail sector, Nykaa's net profit fell 96% to Rs 11 m in the September 2021 quarter on a year-on-year (YoY) basis and 69% sequentially.

The fashion and cosmetics online retailer, which hit Rs 1 tn in market cap after listing on the bourses last week, saw its revenues increase 47% to Rs 8.9 bn on a YoY basis.

The company's marketing and advertising expenses grew 286% to Rs 1.2 bn in the September quarter, compared with Rs 315 m in the year-ago period.

In an exchange filing, Falguni Nayar, chief executive officer and founder of Nykaa said,

• We have maintained growth momentum in our beauty business, accelerated our fashion business, and focused on building the brand with strong marketing campaigns - both digitally and in mass media.
  
  Increased marketing spending has led to an acceleration of customer acquisition, also evident in the unique visitor and transacting customer metrics. The company continues to invest in the expansion of retail stores and fulfillment capacity ahead of the festival season.

The fashion portal's beauty and personal care segment saw its gross merchandise value (GMV) grow 38% to reach Rs 11.9 bn.

Annualized unique transacting customers reached 7.2 m, with YoY growth of 40% in the beauty and personal care vertical, and 1.3 m in the fashion vertical with YoY growth of 417%.

Note that Nykaa has accelerated store expansion this quarter with 8 new physical retail stores across the country, including stores in Gwalior, Kochi, Mysuru, and Ranchi. Its total operational physical stores were 84 as of the quarter ended September.

FSN E-Commerce Ventures' share price is currently trading down by 4.2%.

Moving on to news from the FMCG sector, Britannia is among the top buzzing stocks today.

The country's largest biscuit-maker Britannia Industries' rural focus remains intact and the company's rural revenue may touch 50% in the next three years amid a gradual rebound in urban demand.

At present, its revenue from rural segment contribution is around 35%.

The company was also targeting to make up the unprecedented annualized cost inflation of Rs 13 bn by March 2022 in a combination of the price increase and reduction in pack size.

As per company officials, the cost of inflation in 2021-22 for Britannia is more than the cumulative six previous years.

The company has said that the rural market-share gain is 2.5 times in the September quarter period. In the last few quarters, the rural market has been strong and the company continues to stay upbeat at expanding rural distribution.

The company has increased 2,000 rural direct dealers in the last months to 25,000. It has been said the focus states were also showing some positive numbers than national growth.

Commodity price inflation has resulted in a lower profit for Britannia in the second quarter of 2021-22. The company posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 3.8 bn for the second quarter.

Britannia Industries' share price is currently trading higher by 0.5%.

To know more, check out Britannia's 2020-21 annual report analysis.

Speaking of the FMCG sector, have a look at the chart below which shows the performance of BSE Sensex and BSE FMCG index since 2009:

While Sensex has offered 393% returns since 2009, the BSE FMCG index has gone up a staggering 532% returns over the same period.