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

Benchmark indices extended gains in today's session on the back of all-round buying as investors side-lined Omicron related fears.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 0.8 points (up 0.8%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed higher by 147 points (up 0.9%).

Sun Pharma and Asian Paints were among the top gainers today.

Power Grid Corp and IndusInd Bank, on the other hand, were among the top losers today.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 17,261, up by 155 points, at the time of writing.

The BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap index ended up by 1% and 1.4%, respectively.

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

Shares of Minda Industries and KPIT Technologies hit their respective 52-week highs today.

Asian stock markets ended on a positive note today.

The Hang Seng and the Shanghai Composite ended up by 0.2% and 0.4%, respectively. The Nikkei ended up by 1.4% in today's session.

US stock futures are trading on a positive note today with the Dow Futures trading up by 89 points.

The rupee is trading at 74.65 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading up by 0.1% at Rs 48,130 per 10 grams.

In news from the FMCG sector, ITC was among the top buzzing stocks today.

ITC has commissioned its first offsite solar plant in Dindigul, Tamil Nadu, at an investment of Rs 760 m, the company said in a statement.

The 14.9-megawatt (MW) solar plant will help reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions over the course of its lifetime.

This new project is in line with ITC chairman Sanjiv Puri's 'Sustainability 2.0' vision, under which the conglomerate plans to meet 100% of grid electricity requirements from renewable sources by 2030.

ITC's renewable portfolio comprises 138 MW of wind power plants and 14 MW of solar plants with 53MW of additional solar capacity under execution.

Currently, projects are also underway in other sources of renewable energy such as biomass boilers.

ITC has so far invested Rs 10 bn in renewable energy assets.

Renewable energy powers the company's 20 factories, nine hotels, and six office buildings across Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar, Haryana, West Bengal, and Punjab.

The Dindigul solar plant is spread over 59 acres. The unit will generate over twenty-two million units of renewable energy annually for ITC's hotels, food manufacturing plants, paper manufacturing facility, and printing and packaging factories in Tamil Nadu.

Besides investments in new renewable energy assets, as part of its sustainability agenda, ITC plans to achieve 50% reduction in specific emissions and 30% reduction in specific energy consumption by 2030 over a 2014-15 baseline.

ITC share price ended the day up by 1.1% on the BSE.

Speaking of the FMCG sector, have a look at the chart below which shows the performance of BSE Sensex and BSE FMCG index since 2009:

While Sensex has offered 393% returns since 2009, the BSE FMCG index has gone up a staggering 532% returns over the same period.

Moving on to news from the IPO space...

Supriya Lifescience Lists at 55% Premium Over Issue Price

Shares of Supriya Lifescience made a stellar debut today as the scrip listed at Rs 425 on BSE, a premium of 55.1% over its issue price of Rs 274. On NSE, the scrip listed at Rs 421.

Supriya Lifescience is a manufacturer and supplier of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) with a focus on research and development. As of 31 October 2021, it had niche product offerings of 38 APIs focused on diverse therapeutic segments such as antihistamine, analgesic, anesthetic, vitamin, anti-asthmatic and antiallergic.

The Rs 7 bn initial public offering (IPO) by the API manufacturer was sold from 16 December to 20 December and was subscribed nearly 72 times, with the IPO getting fully subscribed within a few hours of bidding on Day 1.

The IPO comprised a fresh issue of up to Rs 2 bn and an offer for sale (OFS) of up to Rs 5 bn.

Proceeds from the fresh issue will be used for funding capital expenditure requirements, debt repayment, and general corporate purposes.

The API maker has consistently been the largest exporter of Chlorpheniramine Maleate and Ketamine Hydrochloride from India, contributing to 45-50% and 60-65%, respectively, of the API exports from India, between fiscals 2017 and 2021.

It was among the largest exporters of Salbutamol Sulphate in India contributing to 31% of the API exports from India in the financial year 2021 in volume terms.

Supriya Lifescience share price ended the day down by 8.5% over its listing price of Rs 425 on the BSE.