After opening the day on a positive note, Indian share markets pared some gains as the session progressed and ended higher.

Benchmark indices settled off record highs on Tuesday as profit booking at higher levels capped the market rally.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 205 points (up 0.3%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed up by 38 points (up 0.2%).

Infosys, Asian Paints, and HCL Tech were among the top gainers today.

Britannia, SBI, Titan, on the other hand, were among the top losers today.

Check out the NSE Nifty heatmap to get the complete list of gainers and losers.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 19,782, up by 3 points, at the time of writing.

Broader markets ended on a negative note. The BSE Midcap index ended 0.2% lower while the BSE SmallCap fell by 0.5%.

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

While metal stocks and realty stocks witnessed selling.

Shares of Raymond and HDFC AMC hit their 52-week highs today.

Now track the biggest movers of the stock market using stocks to watch today section. This should help you keep updated with the latest developments...

Asian stock markets ended on a mixed note. The Nikkei ended higher by 0.3%, while the Hang Seng ended down by 2.1%. The Shanghai Composite ended lower by 0.4%.

The rupee is trading at 82.04 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading 0.3% higher at Rs 59,337 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading 0.3% higher at Rs 75,785 per kg.
 

Why Infosys' share price is rising

In the news from the IT sector, shares of Infosys rose over 2% following news of a major deal with an established client believed to be worth US$ 2 billion for more than five years. The transaction will involve digital transformation and AI, automation-led development, modernization, and maintenance services for the client.

So far this year, the company has announced two mega deals: its US$ 1.5 bn deal with British oil and gas company bp and its US$ 454-mn deal with Danske Bank.

It also comes just days before the company is slated to report its numbers for the first quarter of FY24 on 20 July, at a time when its peers have cautioned about uncertainty, sluggish or waning growth, and ramp-down.

Infosys is expected to report muted growth during the quarter but is still ahead of peers who have seen a degrowth.
 

Why Paytm's share price is falling

Paytm on to news from the fintech sector, shares of One97 Communications, the parent company of Paytm, declined 2% to Rs 844.5 on 18 July after SoftBank offloaded a 2% additional stake in Paytm.

SoftBank had sold a 2% stake in One97 Communications, its biggest listed investment in India, over the past month through open market operations, generating about US$ 300 million (m).

This is yet another instance of the Japanese investor monetizing its bets in the country, its third-largest investment destination amid a funding drought.

SoftBank, through open market transactions, has been offloading shares regularly over the last month in small tranches and largely at a profit as Paytm's share price has been above Rs 830 during the period, which was the cost price for the Japanese investor.

This is the first time the Japanese investor managed to sell shares of Paytm at a profit since the fintech got listed in November 2021.

Paytm is still far away from its listing price and even the issue price of Rs 2,150. Take a look.

Polycab Q1 results

Moving on to news from the cable sector, shares of Polycab jumped nearly 6% today after the company reported an 81% jump in its June 2023 quarter net profit.

The firm reported a net profit of Rs 4 bn in the June 2023 quarter, against Rs 2.2 bn a year ago. Despite facing lower commodity prices, the company's revenue for the quarter surged by 42% YoY to Rs 38.9 bn, up from Rs 27.4 bn. This remarkable increase was primarily driven by robust volume growth in the wires and cables business.

The company's EBITDA margin improved 2.8% YoY to 14.1%.

Its wire and cables business witnessed an impressive 46% YoY revenue growth, reaching Rs 34.8 bn. This increase was attributed to strong volume growth in domestic and international markets. The domestic distribution-driven business maintained its robust growth momentum, and the institutional business experienced remarkable growth acceleration.

Geographically, the growth was widespread, with the North region contributing the highest growth rate to the overall performance of the business.

Shares of Polycab India have surged 9% in the past five days. The stock is up over 50% in 2023 so far.

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