Indian share markets ended on a weak note today dragged by technology companies after top IT services provider Tata Consultancy Services missed estimates for June-quarter profit.

Looking ahead, India's retail inflation data is due this week, with a Reuters poll showing that the reading likely held steady in June but well above the Reserve Bank of India's tolerance limit for the sixth month.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 87 points (down 0.2%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed flat at 16,216 (down 5 points).

Tata Steel, M&M, and Dr Reddy's Laboratories were among the top gainers today.

Bharti Airtel, TCS, and HCL Technologies, on the other hand, were among the top losers today.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 16,199, down by 29 points, at the time of writing.

Bucking the trend, the broader markets ended in the green. The BSE MidCap index ended higher by 0.6% while the BSE SmallCap index ended higher by 1.1%.

Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note today with stocks in the IT sector, telecom sector, and capital goods sector witnessing most of the selling.

While stocks in the auto sector, metal sector, and energy sector witnessed most of the buying.

According to Chartist Brijesh Bhatia, the auto index is on the verge of a multi-year breakout.

Shares of Eicher Motors and Adani Total Gas hit their 52-week highs today.

Asian share markets ended on a mixed note today on growing concerns about a fresh Covid-19 flare-up in China and ahead of the release of key data this week on the world's number two economy.

The Nikkei ended the day up by 1.1%. While the Shanghai Composite and the Hang Seng plunged by 1.3% and 2.8% respectively.

The rupee hit a new record low today and is trading at 79.45 against the US $.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading down by 0.2% at Rs 50,670 per 10 grams.

Gold prices have fallen and have taken quite a knock in recent weeks.

Speaking of stock markets, the volatility of 2022 has left investors confused. The unpredictability of the market has disappointed investors more than the ending of Bahubali - the beginning.

But lately, the stock markets have started to recover giving investors some reasons to be pleased.

Recently the Indian share market indices, more specifically investors of NSE markets were pleased. As of 7 July 2022, the index was trading above 16,000.

In news from the shipping sector, the Shipping Corporation of India (SCI) was among the top buzzing stock today.

According to people in the know, the government is planning on speeding up the SCI divestment process.

The inter-ministerial group (IMG) is scheduled to meet later today to discuss the progress of SCI demerger and bid plans for the current fiscal year.

Note that SCI has submitted a new demerger plan to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs and has excluded some of its assets from the proposed demerged entity.

As part of the strategic-sale process, the government plans to segregate the real estate assets of the SCI - Shipping House, the training institute, and certain other non-core assets.

In December 2020, the Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) requested expressions of interest (EoI) for the strategic disinvestment of its whole 63.75% stake in SCI, as well as management transfer.

The DIAPM is expected to invite bids for SCI post the demerger.

SCI share price ended 4.8% higher on the BSE today.

Moving on to news from the mining space, state-run miner Coal India has scaled up its capex to Rs 30.3 m for the first quarter of the financial year 2023.

According to the company's statement, the capex is 65% higher as compared to last year driven by the government's push to expand capacity as the country faced yet another power crisis around the same time.

The near-monopoly stock has been under pressure to increase production as coal supplies dwindled at power plants even as demand for electricity hit all-time highs driven by a spike in household expenditure.

This comes amid an ongoing heat wave and a pick-up in industrial demand, forcing many states to resort to power cuts in March-April.

In a statement, Coal India's spokesperson said:

CIL's production tempo is keeping up a consistent double-digit growth in FY23 so far and all efforts are on to continue the trend. What assumes importance is to have a matching evacuation infrastructure that can handle transportation of the increased output.

Speaking of Coal India, have a look at the chart below which shows the company's performance over the past decade.

Despite having a monopoly, shares of Coal India that once traded at Rs 350 (in 2010), now trading at Rs 195 levels.

In news from the electric vehicle space, homegrown solar company, Gensol Engineering, is aiming to make an electric car for less than Rs 0.6 m.

The company on Friday told investors that it had signed a term sheet to acquire a US-based electric vehicle manufacturing start-up that will provide the technical expertise to develop an electric car.

Gensol Engineering did not reveal the name of the US company or the price it paid for the acquisition.

Anmol Singh Jaggi, Managing Director of Gensol Engineering said:

We clearly believe that there is a need for a Rs. 0.5 - 0.6 m (on road price) electric vehicle.
The Indian EV manufacturing industry needs a disruption and that can only happen if an e-car could be sold for as less as Rs. 0.5 m.  We have taken up that challenge.

Currently, the cheapest electric car on Indian roads is Tata Motors' Tata Tigor which costs at least Rs 1.24 m.

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