Indian share markets opened on a negative note today halting their eight-day rally, amid a weak trend in global markets.

Asian markets were trading lower as well. The Hang Seng fell 0.7% while the Nikkei is down by 1.8%.

In the US stock markets, wall street indices closed lower on Thursday as the dollar weakened, after Powell remarked it made sense to moderate the pace of rate hikes.

The Nasdaq was flat while the Dow Jones ended 0.6% lower.

Back home, Indian share markets opened lower following the trend on SGX Nifty.

The BSE Sensex was trading down by 320 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty was trading lower by 99 points.

Bandhan Bank and ONGC are among the top gainers today. Eicher Motors and Ashok Leyland, on the other hand, are among the top losers today.

The BSE Mid Cap index is up 0.2% while the BSE Small Cap is trading higher by 0.3%.

Shares of Hindustan Aeronautics and Raymond hit their 52-week highs today.

The rupee is trading at 81.1 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading down by 0.2% at Rs 53,781 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices are trading down by 0.2% at Rs 65,295 per kg.
 

PolicyBazaar stake sale

In the news from the insurance sector, SoftBank is set to sell a 5% stake in PB Fintech, the parent company of PolicyBazaar, in a block deal.

The shares to be sold are worth Rs 10 bn. The base price for the block deal is Rs 440 per share.

At the moment, SoftBank owns about 10% of PolicyBazaar. After the transaction, SoftBank will own 5% of the business.

The block deal will probably be at a 5% discount to its closing price on 1 December 2021. On BSE, the stock closed at Rs 461.6, an increase of 2.1% from the previous close.

The deal's lone broker is Citi.

SoftBank invested about US$ 199 million (m) (Rs 16.2 bn) in PolicyBazaar and raised US$ 250 m (Rs 20.2 bn) from the sale of shares at the company's IPO last year.

With an internal rate of return of 38%, it has received a 2.5X return on its investment in the insurance aggregator.

PolicyBazaar Fintech made its debut on bourses in November last year.

Moving on to the news from the auto sector.
 

A boom in auto sales

Most Indian manufacturers experienced high overall sales in November thanks to the holiday season, with market leader Maruti Suzuki reporting a 14.3% increase.

Auto sales figures are closely monitored since they are one of the most important indicators for evaluating private spending, which accounts for more than 50% of the calculation of the nation's economic growth.

The Reserve Bank of India's upper tolerance zone for inflation is 6%, yet India's inflation has remained high despite recent signs of improvement.

Tata Motors saw a 55% increase in passenger car sales, a 56.2% increase at Mahindra & Mahindra, and a 22.6% increase at Maruti Suzuki India.

One of the fastest expanding market sectors, utility vehicle sales increased 32.5% at Maruti and 56% at Mahindra.

Sales of tractors, a key indicator of the health of the rural economy and farm revenues, increased by 10.3% at Mahindra, 11.3% at Escorts Kubota, and 10.3% at VST Tillers Tractors.

Also in the EV space, EV sales jumped more than 200% in 2022, accounting for nearly 3% of the overall vehicle sales in India.

Electric two-wheeler sales have been going up in the last 8-12 months after the government revised upwards incentives under the Fame II scheme.

Note that the electric vehicle (EV) megatrend is a once-in-a-century revolution happening right in front of us.

The revolution has taken the auto sector by storm. All segments of the sector are ripe for disruption, and India's top EV stocks are set to benefit from this shift.

Take a look at the chart below, which shows the massive opportunity in two-wheeler EVs.

It remains to be seen how the above developments pan out.

Moving on to the news from the IPO space.
 

Uniparts India IPO

On Thursday's second day of subscription, the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of engineering systems and solutions company Uniparts India was fully subscribed. The public subscription period for this issue began on Wednesday and ends on Friday, 2 December 2022.

The price range has been set from Rs 548 to Rs 577 per share. Before its maiden share sale, the business raised Rs 2,510 m from the anchor investors.

According to market watchers, shares of Uniparts India are currently trading on the black market for a premium (GMP) of Rs 45. On Monday, 12 December 2022, the company's shares are expected to list on the bourses.

The IPO is an offer for sale (OFS) by entities in the promoter group and current investors. The company will not get any funds from the public offering because it is solely an OFS.

The company is an international producer of designed systems and solutions. Due to its presence in more than 25 countries, it is one of the top suppliers of systems and components for the off-highway industry in the agricultural and construction, forestry and mining, and aftermarket sectors.

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