Asian stock markets are trading on a mixed note today after minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest meeting reiterated its commitment to keep interest rates low until the US economy makes a more secure recovery.

The Nikkei is trading lower by 0.4% while the Hang Seng is trading up by 0.8%.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1% to 33,446, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.1%.

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

The BSE Sensex is trading up by 375 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading higher by 111 points.

Hindalco and Tata Steel are among the top gainers today. Bajaj Auto, on the other hand, is among the top losers today.

The BSE Mid Cap index has opened up by 0.5%. The BSE Small Cap index is trading higher by 0.7%.

Sectoral indices are trading in the green with stocks in the metal sector and telecom sector witnessing major buying interest.

Shares of HEG and Persistent Systems hit their 52-week highs today.

The rupee is trading at 74.34 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading down by 0.2% at Rs 46,280 per 10 grams.

Talking about the stock markets and the ongoing volatility in Indian stocks, have a look at the two charts below, in the order, they have been placed:

Near Term Volatility in Sensex Compensated by Long Term Gains

The year-on-year change in the Sensex was hardly predictable but someone who stayed invested multiplied every lakh nearly 14 times.

In news from the IPO space...

The initial public offering (IPO) of Macrotech Developers, one of the largest real estate companies in India, was subscribed 26% on April 7 - the first day of bidding.

The portion set aside for qualified institutional buyers was subscribed 58% and non-institutional investors put in bids for 11% of the reserved portion.

Retail investors' portion was booked 15%.

The issue will close on April 9.

The price band is set at Rs 483-486 per share.

From the IPO proceeds, the company mainly proposes to reduce debt by up to Rs 15 billion and acquire land or land developmental rights aggregating up to Rs 3.8 billion.

Note that this is the third attempt by Lodha Developers to launch a public issue and list its shares on the stock exchanges. In 2009 and 2018, the company had filed IPO documents and also got the market regulator's approval but did not hit the capital market as market conditions were not conducive.

Macrotech Developers' revenue from operations stood at Rs 95.8 billion in 2019-20 fiscal. In the first nine months of the last fiscal (9MFY21), revenue stood at Rs 29.2 billion.

The company posted a profit of Rs 12.1 billion in 2019-20 but has suffered a loss of Rs 2.6 billion in the April-December period of FY21 due to the pandemic.

Stay tuned to get all the updates on Macrotech Developers IPO.

Speaking of IPOs, note that Indian stock markets are going to witness as many as six major companies offering initial public offerings (IPOs) in April.

A similar trend was also seen in March with a total of nine companies being listed on the bourses. These included Laxmi Organic Industries, MTAR Technologies, Nazara Technologies, Easy Trip Planners, Heranba Industries, Craftsman Automation, Suryoday Small Finance Bank, Anupam Rasayan India, and Kalyan Jewellers India.

IPOs like MTAR Technologies and Nazara Technologies listed with whopping premiums of 85% and 79%, respectively, and the biggest issue in terms of size in the month of March was Kalyan Jewellers IPO, which raised Rs 11.8 billion from the primary market.

The IPO of Dodla Dairy will reportedly comprise a fresh issue of up to Rs 500 million by the company and an offer for sale (OFS) of up to 10.09 million equity shares by the promoters and an investor.

Seven Islands Shipping is aiming to raise Rs 6 billion through the IPO which will comprise a fundraise via fresh issue amounting to Rs 4 billion and an OFS aggregating up to Rs 2 billion.

Apart from these, through the Rs 73 billion IPO, Aadhar Housing Finance will issue fresh shares worth Rs 15 billion. The IPO is backed by private equity firm Blackstone which will sell existing shares worth Rs 25 billion in the IPO.

How the above IPOs sail through remains to be seen. Meanwhile, we will keep you updated on the latest news from this space.

Moving on to stock-specific news...

Bharti Airtel is among the top buzzing stocks today.

Bharti Airtel has launched its 5G-ready Internet of Things (IoT) platform with the capability to connect and manage billions of devices and applications as the company further looks to build its enterprise business in the country.

The Sunil Mittal-led telco is targeting automobiles, manufacturing, BFSI utility, and industry 4.0 verticals to drive growth for its IoT platform and the IoT business as a whole.

The company's new platform will support the 5G network in the future and it already supports 2G and 4G along with narrowband-IoT networks.

India's cellular connectivity-based IoT market is forecasted to grow to Rs 100 billion by 2022, driven by connected cars and appliances, Smart factories and utilities, and other use cases.

The telecom company has built this platform in-house. Chitkara said that the telco has a complete digital ecosystem that has been built internally over the last few years.

The company is aiming to create a complete ecosystem through collaboration with startups and other ecosystem players.

How this development pans out remains to be seen. Meanwhile, we will keep you updated on all the news from this space.