After opening the day lower, Indian share markets continued their downtrend as the session progressed and ended the day 0.2% lower.

Indian benchmark indices continued to remain under pressure but cut back on some of the losses towards the end.

Investors chose caution ahead of US inflation data scheduled to be released later today.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 147 points (down 0.2).

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

SBI Life Insurance, L&T, and HCL Tech were among the top gainers today.

Divis Laboratories, Reliance, and BPCL on the other hand were among the top losers today.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 17,919, down by 31 points, at the time of writing.

Broader markets settled on a negative note. The BSE Midcap inched 0.2% lower while the BSE SmallCap index ended flat.

Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note with stocks in the auto sector, power sector, and IT sector witnessing heavy buying.

While stocks in the energy sector, telecom sector, and banking sector witnessed selling.

Shares of PNB Housing Finance, and Mahindra CIE Auto hit their 52-week highs today.

Asian share markets ended the day on a positive note.

The Hang Seng inched up by 0.4%, while the Shanghai Composite index ended 0.1% higher. The Nikkei ended flat.

US stock futures are trading on a negative note. Dow futures are trading flat while Nasdaq futures are trading down by 0.1%.

The rupee is trading at 81.59 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading higher by 0.2% at Rs 55,826 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading up by 0.8% at Rs 68,500 per kg.

Speaking of gold and silver, they are back in the news. The recent price gains have brought them back into the limelight.
 

EKI Energy Signs pact with Det Norske Veritas

In news from the IT sector, shares of EKI Energy rose 1.5% today.

The company on Thursday announced a collaboration with a Norway-based firm Det Norske Veritas to aid climate transition.

The collaboration is to foster a climate transition ecosystem with innovation and digitalization by numerous measures.

Under the Charter of Collaboration, EKI will extend its advisory services to DNV's assurance customers on their journey towards carbon neutrality and net zero in addition to ESG and sustainability assurance services.

The collaboration also seeks to bridge the gap between capital market sustainable finance and carbon finance by innovative debt financial instrument assurance with DNV's broad experience, deep expertise, and global reach, as the company is operating in over 100 countries.

Through this collaboration, EKI will be enhancing its global reach and strengthening its network of global customers by creating awareness of climate change mitigation and adaptation.

EKI Energy Services Ltd is a carbon-credit developer and supplier across the globe. It is the first ever company to list a plastic project from India with Verra - a global accreditation standard located in Washington, US.

EKI offers sustainable solutions for climate change and carbon offsets with global standards.

Why Paytm's share price is falling

In news from the retail sector, the share price of Paytm plunged over 6% today.

This fall came on the backdrop of a large block deal in the afternoon session.

Alibaba, which held a 6.26% stake in Paytm as of the September 2022 quarter, sold a 3.1% stake in Indian digital payments firm Paytm through a block deal.

Shares were exchanged at an average price of Rs 540 per share, amounting to an overall transaction value of Rs 11.3 bn.

Paytm suffered its steepest fall since November 22 to Rs 528 a share on Thursday.

The stock was recently in the news after the company came out with its third-quarter business update.

Paytm said total merchant gross merchandise value (GMV) processed through its platform aggregated to Rs 3.46 tn (US$42 billion) in the December quarter, marking a 38% YoY growth.

For the December quarter, its total disbursements jumped 357% to Rs 9,9.6 bn.

The digital payments company also added one million payment devices during October-December, and the number of merchants paying a subscription for payment devices touched 5.8 million as of December 2022.

Paytm is India's leading financial services company that offers payments and financial solutions to consumers.
 

Why shares of DB Realty hit the upper circuit today

Moving on to news from the real estate sector, shares of DB Realty rallied 55 today.

The shares of the company hit the upper circuit after the company executed settlement agreements with its lender.

DB Realty and its wholly owned subsidiary Goregaon Hotel and Realty Private Ltd executed settlement agreements with Reliance Commercial Finance.

In line with the company's objective to reduce its debt obligations, both parties have agreed to settle all the claims concerning the loan agreements by way of amicable settlement following the terms and conditions as detailed in the settlement agreements.

The company has agreed to pay an amount of Rs 1.8 bn to the lender as a full and final settlement in various tranches. Goregaon Hotel has agreed to pay Rs 2.1 bn to the lender as a full and final settlement in various tranches.

The settlement amounts shall be payable in various tranches before 31 March 2025.

On realization of the amount of the first installment, the parties have undertaken to unconditionally withdraw all the litigations, proceedings, and claims made or filed against each other.

DB Realty Limited is a leading real estate developer in India, involved in residential, commercial, and gated community developments. The realty stock has gained more than 44% in a year, making it among the 5 Smallcap stocks that could go bust in 2023.

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