Extending losses to the sixth session, Indian share markets witnessed heavy selling pressure today and ended deep in the red, tracking weak global cues.

Benchmark indices extended losses as the session progressed following steep losses in Asian peers. A series of warnings from US Federal Reserve officials suggested the US economy was worse than the market was pricing in.

Selling pressure was also seen as investors worried over resurging Covid-19 cases in European cities that led to more restrictions.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 1,115 points. In the past six sessions, Sensex has plunged more than 2,500 points.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty breached 10,800 mark and ended down by 326 points.

IndusInd Bank was the top loser in NSE. Meanwhile, the top gainers in NSE today include Bharti Infratel and HUL.

SGX Nifty was trading at 10,835, down by 312 points, at the time of writing.

The BSE Mid Cap index ended down by 2.1%. The BSE Small Cap index tumbled 2.3%.

On the sectoral front, IT stocks and automobile stocks were among the hardest hit.

Asian stock markets ended deep in the red. As of the most recent closing prices, the Hang Seng was down 1.8% and the Shanghai Composite stood lower by 1.7%. The Nikkei ended down by 1.1%.

US stock futures are trading lower, indicating a negative opening for Wall Street indices.

Nasdaq Futures are trading down by 69 points (down 0.6%), while Dow Futures are trading down by 37 points (down 0.1%).

Moving on, the rupee is trading at 73.90 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading down by 0.3% at Rs 49,340 per 10 grams.

Domestic gold and silver prices continued their fall today, extending losses to the fourth day.

In four days, gold has lost about Rs 2,500 per 10 grams so far. In the previous session, gold had slumped 1.9% or Rs 950 while silver had crashed at 4.5%.

In global markets, gold prices continued their downward movement, falling to a more than two-month low. Investors remained cautious ahead of US jobless claims data due later in the day while a robust dollar weighed on the precious metal.

Gold ETF investors have also moved to the sidelines amid the sharp fall in prices. Holdings in SPDR Gold Trust, the world's largest gold-backed exchange-traded fund, fell 0.9% to 1,267.14 tonnes on Wednesday.

Speaking of the precious yellow metal, how lucrative has gold been as a long-term investment in India?

The chart below shows the annual returns on gold over the last 15 years...

As you can see, barring just two years - 2013 and 2015, gold has delivered positive returns in 13 of the last 15 years.

Unprecedented global stimulus, negative real rates and a weakening dollar had pushed gold to a record high above US$ 2,075 an ounce in early August.

Even with the recent volatility in prices, gold remains among the best-performing commodities this year to combat the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

Moving on to stock-specific news...

Ircon International was among the top buzzing stocks today.

The stock of the company gained as much as 4% after it secured works of total 9 road over bridges (ROBs), valuing more than Rs 4 billion, from the ministry of railways.

Ircon has to provide project management consultancy (PMC) services for the construction of ROBs in lieu of existing level crossings. The period of completion is 24 months from the date of signing of MoU with Zonal Railways, the company said.

The work has been awarded by the ministry through competitive bidding among PSUs.

Ircon International's share price ended the day down by 3.4%.

Market participants were also tracking Reliance Industries' share price.

Reportedly, the company is in the race to acquire Debenhams, a British multinational retailer operating department stores in the United Kingdom with franchise stores in other countries.

In news from the IPO space, the Rs 6-billion initial public offering of Angel Broking was subscribed 3.9 times at the time of writing.

The IPO received bids for 53 million equity shares against an offer size of 13.7 million equity shares.

The offer received a bumper response from retail investors who have subscribed to the issue 4.2 times so far.

The portion set aside for qualified institutional buyers witnessed a 5.73 times subscription.

Speaking of IPOs, note that this month is proving to be one of the busiest months for initial public offerings (IPOs) in close to a decade, with nearly eight deals getting launched. The last time a month saw many deals getting launched was September 2011 when 8 IPOs were launched.

Asset management company UTI Mutual Fund and state-owned shipbuilder Mazagon Dock will launch their offerings just before the month ends.

The IPOs of Chemcon Speciality Chemicals and CAMS closed on Wednesday with a strong response from investors. Bids for Chemcon's issue were 149 times the shares on offer, making it one of the most subscribed IPOs in five years. The Rs 22.4-billion IPO of CAMS was subscribed 46.9 times.

Reports state that stellar listings for the last three IPOs has buoyed prospects for the primary markets. Happiest Minds Technologies and Route Mobile had blockbuster debuts, doubling investor wealth on listing day.