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

Benchmark indices rose after a day's hiatus as positive buying was witnessed across all sectors, ahead of key jobs data in the US.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 514 points (up 0.9%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed higher by 158 points (up 0.9%).

Shree Cement and HDFC Life Insurance were among the top gainers today.

Mahindra & Mahindra and ONGC, on the other hand, were among the top losers today.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 17,262, up by 165 points, at the time of writing.

Both, the BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap index ended up by 1%.

Sectoral indices ended on a positive note with stocks in the FMCG sector, consumer durables sector and IT sector witnessing buying interest.

Shares of L&T Infotech and Tata Elxsi hit their respective 52-week highs today.

Asian stock markets ended on a positive note today.

The Hang Seng and the Shanghai Composite ended the day up by 0.2% and 0.8%, respectively. The Nikkei ended up by 0.3% in today's session.

US stock futures are trading on a positive note today with the Dow Futures trading up by 56 points.

The rupee is trading at 73.06 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading up by 0.2% at Rs 47,170 per 10 grams.

In news from the auto sector, M&M was among the top buzzing stocks today.

Automotive manufacturer Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on Wednesday said that it will observe 'no production days' of around 7 days in September as its automotive division has continued to face supply shortages of semiconductors, which has got further accentuated due to Covid lockdowns in some parts of the world.

In an exchange filing, M&M said,

• Consequently, the company will be observing 'no production days' of around 7 days in its automotive division plants in the month of September 2021, which is estimated to result in a reduction in production volumes of the automotive division in September 2021 by 20-25%.

The company's revenue and profitability will be impacted in line with the fall in production volumes. Though, M&M said that the firm is taking various cost optimization measures to limit the impact of the same.

It further added that the 'no production days' will not affect the company's tractor and 3-wheeler businesses.

Also, there will be no material impact of the above event on the XUV7OO production ramp-up and launch plans and the date of commencement of bookings will be announced soon.

The global shortage of semiconductor chips is hurting automobile production even as demand is recovering well from the second wave of the pandemic.

M&M's share price ended the day down by 2.3% on the BSE.

Moving on to news from the pharma sector...

Morepen Laboratories Surges 11% on Business Division Rejig

Shares of Morepen Laboratories rallied as much as 11% in early trade today after the company announced to transfer its medical devices business to a subsidiary.

According to a BSE filing, the pharmaceuticals firm will transfer the medical equipment business to a wholly-owned subsidiary by allotment of equity shares of Rs 10 each.

The revenues and profits derived from the new subsidiary will be consolidated in the parent company, Morepen Laboratories, the filing added.

However, the company will seek regulatory approval for the same.

The pharmaceutical business of the company contributes Rs 8.3 bn or 74.3% of revenue, whereas the company derives 25.7% revenue from the medical device segment.

The net worth of the pharmaceutical segment is Rs 3.9 bn, which is a little more than 88% of the total net worth of the company. The medical device segment contributes the remaining 12%.

The company intends to complete the transfer of the medical device business, valued at Rs 550 m, in the financial year 2021-22.

Morepen Laboratories' share price ended the day up by 9.1% on the BSE.

Speaking of the current stock market scenario, note that the BSE smallcap index has surged 188% since the crash in March 2020.

Despite the index is up more than 1.8 times, Richa Agarwal, lead Smallcap Analyst at Equitymaster, believes smallcap stocks are set for a massive up move in 2021 and beyond.

Here's why...

The Smallcap to Sensex ratio, a metric referred to get a sense of relative valuations, currently stands at 0.48 times. To be sure, this is higher than a median of 0.43 times.

And yet, it's the lowest of all the peaks in the small caps so far. In the last cycle which peaked in January 2018, when the ratio touched 0.49, the peak was still 9 months away.