Asian share markets are trading on a mixed note today as traders remain on edge over the Russia-Ukraine crisis with western powers imposing fresh sanctions on Moscow.

The Hang Seng and the Shanghai Composite are trading down by 1.4% and 0.1%, respectively. The Nikkei is trading on a flat note.

In US stock markets, Wall Street capped a turbulent week of trading on Friday with a broad rally for stocks as relief flowed through the market, even as deadly attacks raged in Ukraine.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 834.9 points, or 2.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 221 points or 1.6%.

Back home, Indian share markets opened on a negative note in the holiday-truncated week.

Tracking weakness in Asian and global peers, the domestic benchmark indices started trade lower today amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict uncertainty.

Meanwhile, investors will also take note of key macro data to be released today. The government will be announcing the January infrastructure output and the December 2022 quarter GDP numbers later in the day.

The BSE Sensex fell 688 points to 55,170, while the NSE Nifty was at 16,481, lower by 177 points.

At present, the BSE Sensex is trading down by 745 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading lower by 206 points.

Hindalco and Tata Steel are among the top gainers today.

HDFC Life Insurance and SBI Life Insurance are among the top losers today.

In the broader markets, the BSE Mid Cap and Small Cap indices were also in the negative territory, down 1% each.

Among sectors, telecom, banking, IT, FMCG, and finance indices slipped 1.5% each, while metals were the outperformer in today's weak market.

The rupee is trading at 75.29 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading up by 1.7% at Rs 51,094 per 10 grams.

Crude oil prices jumped today after western nations imposed new sanctions on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, including blocking some banks from the SWIFT international payments system.

In news from the realty sector, Brigade Enterprises is among the top buzzing stock today.

Bengaluru-based realty firm Brigade Enterprises sales bookings increased by 14% to Rs 19.9 bn in the first nine months of this fiscal, mainly on the back of revival in housing demand.

Out of the total sales bookings, the housing segment contributed Rs 19.6 bn, up 17% from Rs 16.7 bn in the year-ago period.

Sales of commercial properties fell 54% to Rs 374 m from Rs 809 m.

The sales realization rose by 6% to Rs 6,298 per square feet from Rs 5,945 as the company increased its housing prices due to a rise in rates of key raw materials like cement.

Sales bookings in volume terms rose 8% to 3.2 million square feet in the first nine months of this fiscal year.

'In the residential segment buyer sentiment continues to be positive as witnessed with the demand in our ongoing and completed residential projects with Brigade continues to be the brand of choice for customers seeking to buy a new home,' said M R Jaishankar, chairman and managing director, Brigade Enterprises.

He added that the company is in the process of tying up about 15 million square feet of new projects across Bengaluru, Chennai, and Hyderabad.

Almost all listed real estate developers have reported robust sales bookings during the first nine months of this fiscal on revival in housing demand and consolidation of demand towards trusted developers that have a good track record of completing projects.

Brigade Enterprises is one of the leading real estate developers in South India with over 35 years of experience. It is into housing, office, retail, and hospitality projects.

Brigade Enterprises' share price is currently trading up by 0.5% on the BSE.

Moving on to news from the retailing sector...

Future Retail Suspends Supermarket Operations as Reliance Plans Takeover

Future Retail, India's second-largest retailer, suspended most of its online and offline operations as stores remained shut on Sunday after rival Reliance bid to take over its flagship supermarkets for missed lease payments.

Reliance Industries will rebrand the Future stores after the company failed to make payments for them to Reliance, sources told Reuters on Saturday, closing most outlets of the popular Big Bazaar chain.

Though Future has more than 1,700 outlets, all the 200 stores that Reliance will rebrand as its own will be Big Bazaars, which was started around two decades ago by Kishore Biyani, dubbed as India's retail king for transforming the sector.

Future told stock exchanges on Saturday the company was 'scaling down its operations'. Future's stores across India remained shut across India as Reliance did stock-taking ahead of a rebranding.

'We regret to inform you that currently, stores are non-operational for 2 days,' Big Bazaar told a Twitter user who complained about a closure. Future's e-commerce mobile app and website were also not available for online ordering.

Reliance's move assumes significance as it follows failed efforts since 2020 to close a US$3.4 bn deal to acquire the retail assets of Future, whose partner Amazon.com Inc has blocked the transaction by citing violation of contracts. Future denies any wrongdoing.

Reliance had transferred leases of some stores of debt-laden Future to its name and sublet them to Future but is now taking over as Future did not make payments. Reliance has offered store staff jobs on existing terms.

'All employees, consumers, and everyone in India - we are all attached to the Big Bazaar brand,' a Big Bazaar employee on Sunday. 'So, you feel sad this is happening'.

In blocking the Future-Reliance deal, Amazon has long argued that Future violated the terms of a 2019 deal in which the US giant invested US$200 m in the Indian company. Amazon's position has been backed so far by a Singapore arbitrator and Indian courts.

Future Retail share price is currently trading up by 8% on the BSE.

Speaking of the current stock market scenario, note that the BSE smallcap index has surged more than 200% since the crash in March 2020.

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.