After starting the session on a negative note, the Indian share market swung between gains and losses and experiences a volatile trading day.

Benchmark indices remained flat for most of the session and closed with marginal gains. With US markets closed for holidays, global cues played a minor role in today's session with all eyes on quarterly earnings.

IT companies will be the first ones to report their earnings starting next week. TCS will declare its results on 9 January 2022.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 126 points (up 0.2%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed higher by 35 points (up 0.2%).

HDFC Life, SBI Life Insurance, and Axis Bank were among the top gainers today.

Hindalco, Britannia, and M&M on the other hand were among the top losers today.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 18,264, up by 41 points, at the time of writing.

Broader markets ended on a positive note. Both, the BSE Midcap and the BSE SmallCap index ended 0.2% higher.

Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note with stocks in the healthcare sector, IT sector, and finance sector witnessing most of the buying.

On the other hand, stocks from the auto sector, and the metal sector witnessed selling pressure.

Shares of Solar Industries, Axis Bank, and Swan Energy hit their 52-week high today.

Asian share markets ended on a positive note.

The Hang Seng inched higher by 1.8%, while the Shanghai Composite index edged higher by 0.8%. The Nikkei ended flat.

The rupee is trading at 82.88 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading higher by 0.8% at Rs 55,619 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading up by 1.7% at Rs 70,748 per kg.

Speaking of stock markets, the Tata group is gearing up to bring another TCS to the market - Tata Electronics.

The recent development that has put Tata Electronics in the spotlight is Tata Sons Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran confirming the company's plans to venture into the semiconductor business, which is pegged to reach US$ 1 trillion in revenue by 2030 globally.

Tata Electronics could get listed anytime in 2023.
 

Rama Steel clocks highest-ever sales volume in Q3

In news from the steel sector, shares of Rama Steel Tubes surged 3.9% today.

Shares of the company hit its 52-week high of Rs 185.1 after the company recorded its highest sales volume of 53,216.2 tons in the December 2022 quarter.

For nine months, from April to December 2022, the company's sales volume rose to 131,824.8 tons compared to 71,071.4 tons last year.

In the next 12 months, the management expects the sales volume to further boost from the commissioning and ramp-up of new capacity expansion at Khopoli Plant, Maharashtra.

The company focuses on business growth opportunities from government programs like housing for all, affordable housing, smart cities, the national highway development program, and many more.

Additionally, the company is entering specialized markets, such as the provider of steel pipes and tubes to city gas distribution and solar energy power plants.

Federal Bank's Q3 loan grows 19.1%

Moving on to news from the private banking sector, shares of Federal Bank rose 2% in early trade.

Federal Bank today posted 19.1% year-on-year (YoY) growth in advances for December 2022 quarter (Q3FY23), aided by demand in the festive season.

It posted 12% growth in the same quarter last year.

The retail advances for the quarter also expanded by 19.1%, which was 7.9% a year ago.

The total deposits of the bank crossed the Rs 2 trillion (tn) mark growing 14.8% YoY.

The pace of customer liabilities, or deposits excluding interbank deposits and certificates of deposits, expanded at a slower pace of 12.8% YoY at Rs 1.9 tn at end of December 2022.

Inter-bank deposits, instruments for raising funds or applying surplus resources, expanded by 42.8% YoY to Rs 22.8 bn.

Growth in the current account and savings account (CASA) slowed to 7.2% YoY at the end of December 2022 from 15.43% a year ago.

Also, the share of CASA deposits in total deposits declined to 34.3% at the end of December 2022 from 36.7% a year ago.

Federal Bank is a private bank based in Kerela. The bank handles more than 15% of all inward remittances in India.
 

ONGC's Sagar Samrat rig begins

Moving on to news from the energy sector, ONGC was among the top buzzing stocks today.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) today announced that its iconic offshore drilling rig Sagar Samrat has been commissioned as a Mobile Offshore Production Unit (MOPU) on 23 December 2022.

Sagar Samrat MOPU will handle up to 20,000 barrels per day of crude oil, with a maximum export gas capacity of 2.36 million cubic meters per day (MCMPD).

Further, it will add 6,000 barrels of crude oil per day to ONGC's production in the coming days.

The first oil from the WO-16 cluster flowed into the processing system of MOPU and has been dispatched to the onshore terminal commenced.

The WO-16 is a cluster of four marginal fields in the Arabian Sea at a water depth of 75-80 m. The cluster is located 130 km from Mumbai.

The project to convert Jack-up rig Sagar Samrat into a MOPU was given to a consortium of Mercator Oil & Gas Ltd on 17 November 2011.

After many hurdles such as the legal challenges and Covid-19, the MOPU was transported to India on a heavy lift vessel and installed close to the WO-16 wellhead platform in April 2022.

The company said that the Sagar Samrat conversion project is one of the most complex projects executed by it.

ONGC is the biggest publicly traded oil and gas production and exploration company in India. The company produces 70% of India's crude oil. This is almost equivalent to 57% of the overall demand in the country.

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