Indian share markets ended on a strong note today taking a breather after the recent dip.

Although, benchmark indices ended the week lower as fears over aggressive rate hikes by central banks dented sentiment.

Volatility has re-emerged and investors have turned their focus on upcoming Fed policy in the backdrop of heightened US inflation.

Fall in crude prices and reduction in FII selling added optimism to the domestic market while gloomy IT results, depreciating rupee, and fear of global recession are restricting sizeable up move.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 345 points (up 0.7%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed higher by 111 points (up 0.7%).

HUL, Maruti Suzuki, and Titan were among the top gainers today.

Tata Steel, Power Grid, and HCL Tech, on the other hand, were among the top losers today.

Bharti Airtel's share price is falling as the Adani group has announced its foray into the telecom sector.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 16,042, up by 108 points, at the time of writing.

The broader markets ended in the green. The BSE MidCap index ended higher by 0.8% and the BSE SmallCap index ended higher by 0.5%.

Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note today with stocks in the auto sector, FMCG sector, and realty sector, witnessing most of the buying.

While stocks in the IT sector, and the metal sector witnessed most of the selling.

Ever since IT major TCS released its Q1 results, IT stocks are falling.

Shares of Adani Transmission and Adani Enterprises hit their 52-week highs today.

Adani group companies took a sharp hit yesterday but managed to reverse the trend today.

Asian share markets ended on a mixed note today following moderate losses on Wall Street after fresh data indicated inflation in the US remained at a high level.

The Nikkei ended the day up by 0.5%. While the Shanghai Composite ended lower by 1.6% and the Hang Seng plunged by 2.2%.

The rupee hit a new record low today and is trading at 79.87 against the US $.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading down by 0.4% at Rs 50,011 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading down by 0.7% at Rs 54,680 per 1 kg.

Note that silver prices have fallen and have taken quite a knock in recent weeks.

Speaking of stock markets, when investing in share markets we often focus only on earning long-term capital. We forget about the hidden weapon in an investor's armory - regular dividend.

A stock that pays regular dividends will turn out to be a good friend in volatile markets because even when capital gains are in doubt, regular returns will be ascertained. So an investor should definitely invest some amount in fundamentally strong companies that pay a regular dividend.

In news from the banking sector, Yes Bank has chosen JC Flowers as the highest bidder to become the joint venture partner for the sale of its RS 480 bn bad loans.

With the final approval from the Board Credit Committee, Yes Bank has signed a binding term sheet with JCF ARC and JC Flowers Asset Reconstruction for strategic partnership in relation to the sale of identified stressed loans of the bank.

The term sheet will be effective from today.

JC Flowers has likely valued Yes Bank's bad loan book at Rs 121.1 bn, which will get transferred to the asset reconstruction company.

The deal will further make way for Yes Bank to invest around Rs 4 bn for a 20% stake in JC Flowers ARC.

The Swiss challenge auction process will start on Friday for potential buyers to up the offer.

Under the Swiss challenge method, an entity makes an offer for an asset and the bid price is put as a benchmark to call for more proposals to make a higher offer.

American private equity firm Cerebrus Capital, which was in the race to purchase Yes Bank's bad loans, is expected to participate in the Swiss challenge, according to people in the know.

Since we're discussing banking stocks, look at the NPA levels which are currently at 5-year lows, but are still a substantial 6% of the overall loan book.

For now, higher lending rates have offered a bigger margin to banks. Lending rates have gone up but deposit rates are yet to catch up.

So, for a few quarters, higher net interest margins will make the banks look healthy.

Moving on to stock-specific news, Tata Steel Long Products was among the top buzzing stocks today.

Tata Steel Long Products (TSLP) posted a net loss of Rs 3.3 bn in the June quarter, mainly on account of higher expenses, as against a profit of Rs 3.3 bn in the year-ago period.

Its total income for the quarter under review rose to Rs 21.5 bn from Rs 17.3 bn in the quarter ended June 2021.

The company saw its expenses rise to Rs 24.9 bn from Rs 12.8 bn in the same period a year ago.

A subsidiary of Tata Steel, TSLP is one of India's largest integrated special steel and merchant direct reduced iron (sponge iron) players.

Through TSLP, Tata Steel recently completed the acquisition of Odisha-based 1 m tonnes per annum steel mill NINL for a considerable amount of Rs 120 bn.

Note that metal stocks have been falling as industrial metals are trading at multi-year lows.

More By This Author:

Sensex Trades In Green; Bharti Airtel, M&M, Titan Among Top Gainers
Sensex Extends Losing Run To Fourth Straight Day, Ends 98 Points Lower; HCL Tech, Tech Mahindra Top Losers
Sensex, Nifty Trade Higher, Sun Pharma, Dr Reddy's Lab & Tata Consumer Top Gainers