Asian share markets traded mixed today following moderate losses on Wall Street after fresh data indicated inflation in the US remained at a high level.

The Nikkei rose by 0.7% while the Hang Seng gained 0.2%. The Shanghai Composite is down 0.1%.

US stocks closed modestly lower on Thursday after investors digested disappointing quarterly results from two large US banks and hotter-than-expected inflation data.

The Dow Jones was down 0.5% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended on a flat note.

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

Benchmark indices opened on a positive note tracking the trend on SGX Nifty.

At present, the BSE Sensex is trading higher by 165 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading higher by 48 points.

Bharti Airtel and L&T are among the top gainers today.

Wipro and Tata Steel are among the top losers today.

IndusInd Bank's share price, after falling for the past couple of days, is trading in the green today.

Broader markets are trading on a positive note. The BSE Mid Cap index is up by 0.4% while the BSE Small Cap index is trading higher by 0.2%.

Sectoral indices are trading on a positive note with the exception of the energy, finance, bank, and metal sectors. Stocks in the telecom and auto witness most of the buying.

Shares of Siemens and Voltamp Transformers hit their 52-week highs today.

In the commodity markets, gold prices are flat. Today, prices are down by Rs 12, trading at Rs 50,240 per 10 grams.

Note that gold prices have fallen and have taken quite a knock in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, silver prices are trading lower at Rs 55,008 per kg. Silver price to has fallen a lot in recent days.

Speaking of stock markets, when investing in share markets we often focus only on earning long-term capital. We forget about the hidden weapon in an investor's armory - regular dividend.

A stock that pays regular dividends will turn out to be a good friend in volatile markets because even when capital gains are in doubt, regular returns will be ascertained. So an investor should definitely invest some amount in fundamentally strong companies that pay regular dividends.

In news from the telecom sector, Bharti Airtel issues shares to Google.

Yesterday, telecom operator Bharti Airtel said it has allotted over 71 m equity shares to internet major Google for Rs 734 per share.

The allotment is part of Google's commitment to invest USD 1 billion with Airtel, which included equity investment in the company worth USD 700 million, about Rs 52.2 bn.

Google made the investment as part of its USD 10-billion India Digitization Fund.

Out of the total investment with Airtel, USD 300 million was earmarked for implementing commercial agreements, which include investments in scaling Airtel's offerings that cover a range of devices to consumers via innovative affordability programs as well as other offerings aimed at accelerating access and digital inclusion across India's digital ecosystem.

Google will hold approximately 1.2% of the total post-issue equity shares of the company-- approximately 1.2% on a fully-diluted basis.

Google has also invested Rs 337.4 bn (about USD 4.5 billion) to buy a 7.7% stake in Jio Platforms just a couple of days after it made an announcement about the India Digitization Fund.

This might finally be the good news that the shareholders needed because Bharti Airtel's share price was falling. The decline came after the Adani group announced an entry into the 5G spectrum.

As expected, shares of Bharti Airtel opened in the green following the news of Google's investment.

In news from the cement sector, ACC posted its Q1 results yesterday.

Cement maker ACC Ltd on Thursday reported a 60.1% decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 2.3 bn for the second quarter ended June 2022.

The company, which follows January-December financial year, posted a profit of Rs 5.7 bn in April-June a year ago.

Total revenue from operations during the quarter under review was Rs 44.7 bn as against 38.9 bn in the year-ago period.

Total expenses were at Rs 42.2 bn as compared with Rs 31.7 bn earlier.

Last year's expenses formed 80% of income, and this year's expenses form 94% of income.

Thus, it can be clearly seen that increase in revenues is washed off by a greater increase in expenses. The income has gone up by 15% while expenses rose by 33%.

On Thursday shares of ACC settled at Rs 2,154.5, down 0.83% from the previous close.

Further in news from the IT sector, Tata Elxsi- another IT venture of Tata group reported its Q1 results.

Tata Elxsi announced strong Q1 earnings as the IT major reported Rs 7.3 bn revenue from operations, logging QoQ growth of 6.5% and YoY growth of 30%.

Profits after tax (PAT) of the company grew 15.4% QoQ and 62.9% YoY to Rs 1.8 bn. The company's growth was primarily volume-led, with all three segments of EPD, IDV, and SIS showing robust growth of 6.2%, 6.6%, and 19.8% QoQ respectively.

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