Asian stock markets climbed today after US benchmarks halted a three-day slide, with signs of a strengthening labor market outweighing investors' concerns about rising inflation.

Chinese stocks fluctuated after the country's MSCI Index slipped into bear-market territory.

The Hang Seng is trading up by 0.9% while the Nikkei zoomed 2%. The Shanghai Composite is trading up 1.2%.

In US stock markets, Wall Street indices climbed on Thursday, rebounding from steep losses in the previous session, as investors picked up shares after the pullback.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 434 points, while the S&P 500 jumped 1.2%.

The Nasdaq Composite closed up 0.7% as investors tried to pick some winners in the beaten-up tech sector. Apple and Microsoft each bounced more than 1.5%.

Elon Musk's electric car maker Tesla lost 3%. That stock has posted declines in 11 of the last 13 trading sessions and is on track to post its worst week since March 2020 with a week-to-date loss of 15%.

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

A total of 41 companies, including L&T, Dr Reddy's Lab, Cipla, and Just Dial are scheduled to release their quarterly results today.

WPI inflation for April is set to be declared later in the day.

The BSE Sensex is trading down by 33 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading lower by 14 points.

Bajaj Auto is among the top gainers today. Sun Pharma, on the other hand, is among the top losers today.

The BSE Mid Cap index has opened up by 0.4%. The BSE Small Cap index is trading higher by 0.8%.

Barring IT stocks, all sectoral indices are trading in green with stocks in the FMCG sector and consumer durables sector witnessing most of the buying interest.

Shares of UPL and Polycab India hit their 52-week highs today.

The rupee is trading at 73.45 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading down by 0.1% at Rs 47,395 per 10 grams.

Gold edged lower today as a firmer dollar made bullion more expensive for other currency holders, although a pullback in the US Treasury yields limited losses for the safe-haven metal.

In news from the power sector, Tata Power is among the top buzzing stocks today.

Tata Power on Wednesday posted a marginal rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 4.8 bn for the March quarter 2020-21 (Q4FY21).

The company had reported a net profit of Rs 4.7 bn in the year-ago period.

The company said the rise in consolidated net profit in the quarter under review is due to saving in finance cost offset by an exceptional gain in the previous year.

Total income rose to Rs 102.2 bn in the quarter from Rs 67.9 bn in the same period a year ago.

The company's board has approved a proposal to raise up to Rs 55 bn through the issuance of non-convertible debentures (NCDs).

The NCDs can be issued on a private placement basis to any persons, entities, companies, banks, and financial institutions.

The funds so raised will be utilized for refinancing of existing loans, among others.

For the full year ended March 2021, Tata Power's consolidated net profit rose to Rs 14.4 bn from Rs 13.2 bn reported in the previous year.

Tata Power's share price has opened the day down by 2.5%.

Speaking of the power sector, it's interesting to note the power exchanged in India is about 4.5% of the overall power production, as can be seen in the chart below.

As per Tanushree Banerjee, Co-Head of Research at Equitymaster, India's power sector is currently in transition. It's driven by increasing reliance on short-term contracts and electricity spot markets.

This transition to the short-term market is happening due to quickly evolving industry dynamics.

Tanushree believes the Indian power sector will see a surge in spot power volumes due to certain factors.

Moving on to news from the banking sector, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) is informally urging lenders to cut ties with cryptocurrency exchanges and traders as the highly speculative market booms, despite a Supreme Court ruling that banks can work with the industry.

The guidance comes as India is crafting a law to ban cryptocurrencies and penalize anyone dealing in them.

In 2018, the RBI had forbidden banks from dealing in all transactions related to bitcoin and other such assets. That diktat was challenged by the crypto exchanges and in March 2020, India's top court overturned the RBI ban and allowed lenders to extend banking facilities to them.

As per reports, the regulator has been unofficially asking banks that why are they dealing in such business when it is speculative. A lot of money flows overseas via this trade which the RBI is not comfortable with as it may lead to money laundering.

Private lender ICICI Bank has already asked payment service companies that it works with to stop all crypto-related payment transactions.

With Indian banks increasingly wary of dealing with them, crypto exchanges are scrambling to find new business partners.

As per reports, Axis Bank, Citibank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and others are limiting their exposure to the cryptocurrency market.

IndusInd Bank is also in the process of stopping all crypto-related transactions, said sources.