Asian share markets are mixed today as traders eased back after a healthy run-up in recent sessions. A negative close from Wall Street also dampened sentiment.

The Nikkei advanced 0.5% while the Shanghai Composite fell 0.2%. The Hang Seng is down 0.6%.

In US stock markets, Wall Street indices closed lower on Tuesday, following a rally last week, as volatile crude oil markets kept soaring inflation in focus and investors reacted to hawkish comments from a Federal Reserve official.

Investors are awaiting key US data due this week.

The Dow Jones fell 0.7% while the Nasdaq tumbled 0.4%.

Back home, Indian share markets are trading on a flat note.

Benchmark indices opened on a negative note following the trend on SGX Nifty and tracking mixed global cues.

Market participants are tracking FII& DII activity closely. FIIs turned buyers yesterday and bought stocks worth Rs 10 bn, data available with NSE suggested.

eMudhra, India's largest licensed certifying authority, made its debut on the bourses today by listing at a 6% premium to issue price.

The company sold shares in its Rs 4.1 bn IPO in the range of Rs 243-256 apiece.

The BSE Sensex is trading down by 72 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading lower by 21 points.

Asian Paints and Tata Steel are among the top gainers today.

Tech Mahindra and Wipro, on the other hand, are among the top losers today.

The BSE Mid Cap index is up 0.1%. The BSE Small Cap index is trading higher by 0.7%.

Sectoral indices are trading mixed with stocks in the metal sector and energy sector witnessing most of the buying.

Power stocks and IT stocks, on the other hand, are trading in green.

Shares of Ratnamani Metals and ABB India hit their 52-week highs today.

Vodafone Idea's share price fell today after rising consecutively for the past two days after reports stated Amazon is set to invest in the telecom company.

Meanwhile, Adani Power's momentum seems to be lost as it is on a downtrend for the past two days.

In this volatile market, a few penny stocks are continuously hitting their 52-week highs. Several Indian stocks have delivered multi-bagger returns in a span of one month.

But not all are worthy. Most of them are trading in uncharted territory and have become overvalued.

Gold prices are trading down by 0.1% at Rs 50,855 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices are trading down by 0.8% at Rs 60,610 per kg.

Crude oil prices rose today after European Union leaders agreed to a partial and phased ban on Russian oil and China ended its Covid-19 lockdown in Shanghai.

In news from the engineering sector, Larsen & Toubro (L&T) is among the top buzzing stocks today.

L&T has received a major contract for the Chennai Metro Rail Project in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

The company has now secured a contract for Package C3 (CP08 EV01) of the project's second phase.

Under the package, L&T will build an elevated viaduct measuring around 10km, including an elevated ramp.

The company will also build ten elevated metro stations at Nehru Nagar, Kandanchavadi, Perungudi, Thoraipakkam, Mettukuppam, PTC colony, Okkiyampet, Karapakkam, Okkiyam Thoraipakkam, and Sholinganallur.

The company expects to finish building the elevated Metro Rail package within 35 months.

L&T said that it is already executing four packages of CMRL Phase II, one of which is underground and the other three being elevated packages.

Earlier this month, L&T Construction's railway business unit won a construction contract for a portion of the bullet train project in India.

L&T's share price is currently trading down by 0.7%.

Speaking of engineering and infra stocks, have a look at the chart below to see how the infra index has performed over the years:

The increased capex plans, backed by the government's announcements on the production linked incentive (PLI) schemes have pushed the index higher in the past one year.

Global supply chains are shifting away from China and India is a key beneficiary of that trend.

In news from the oil & gas space, as per a leading financial daily, some OPEC members are considering the idea of suspending Russia in an oil production deal as Western sanctions hurt the nation's ability to produce more.

Exempting Russia could pave the way for Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and other OPEC members to produce more to meet the production targets.

Crude oil prices have soared to above US$100 a barrel since the Russian invasion of Ukraine and countries including the United States have urged a hike in production to bring prices down.

OPEC+ is set to stick to an oil production deal agreed last year at its meeting on 2 June and raise July output targets by 432,000 barrels per day.

Moving on to news from the automobile sector, auto companies in India are increasingly looking beyond roadways to ferry finished vehicles across the country to reduce emissions as well as to cut costs amid a sharp increase in fuel prices.

As much as 16% of all passenger vehicles produced in the local market were transported via railways in the last financial year, a four-fold increase from 4.5% in fiscal 2018, shows data available with Indian Railways.

Leading the charge for this is the country's largest carmaker, Maruti Suzuki. It dispatched over 233,809 vehicles through railways, which is the highest in a fiscal.

This is also an increase of 23% over 188,656 vehicles transported via rail last year. The company is working on increasing the share of rail transportation from the current level of 15%.

Railway transportation helps Maruti Suzuki reach its customers in Southern and Northeastern states in about eight days while road transportation normally takes 16 days.

Apart from Maruti Suzuki, Transport Corporation of India, APL Vascor, Adani NYK, IVC Logistics, and Joshi Konoike have also secured licenses to cash in on the potential in the space.

We will keep you updated on the latest developments in this space. Stay tuned.