Asian share markets opened mostly lower today with investors taking cues from a cut to profit estimates by US retail giant Walmart, which helped drag down US markets.

The Nikkei rose 0.1% while the Hang Seng was down by 1.1%. The Shanghai Composite is trading lower by 0.2%.

Wall Street stocks tumbled Tuesday on worries about weakening consumer health following Walmart's downgrade of its earnings outlook and lackluster US economic data.

Big retailers and technology companies led stocks lower. Walmart warned that inflation is hurting American consumers' spending power.

The Dow Jones rose by 0.3% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq was down 0.4%

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

Benchmark indices opened higher today, defying the trend on SGX Nifty. Soon as the session progressed, gains were extended.

At present, the BSE Sensex is trading higher by 207 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading up by 46 points.

L&T and Sun Pharma are among the top gainers today.

Bajaj Finserv and Kotak Mahindra Bank are among the top losers today.

Tanla's share price is in focus after it announced Q1 results. Tanla's share price is falling dramatically on the bourses post the announcement.

Meanwhile, Zomato's share price is falling as the IPO lock-in period ended.

Broader markets are trading on a positive note. The BSE Mid Cap index is up by 0.3% while the BSE Small Cap index is trading higher by 0.1%.

Sectoral indices are trading on a positive note with the exception of the telecom and consumer durables sectors.

IT stocks are falling for quite some time now and showing no signs of respite.

Gujarat Fluorochemicals and Page Industries hit their 52-week highs today.

In the commodity markets, gold prices fall again. Today, gold prices are down by Rs 43 trading at Rs 50,541 per 10 grams.

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

Meanwhile, silver prices are trading higher at Rs 54,540 per kg. Silver prices too have fallen a lot in recent days.

The rupee is trading at 79.88 against the US dollar.

The rupee fell and closed at 79.4 against the US$ yesterday.

In news from the engineering sector, L&T posted its Q1 results yesterday.

Engineering major Larsen & Toubro on Tuesday reported a 45% jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 17 bn for the quarter ending 30 June 2022.

The company's revenue rose 22% to Rs 358.5 bn for the quarter under review as compared to Rs 293.4 bn last year.

International revenues during the quarter, at Rs 132.4 bn, constitute 37% of the total revenue.

The company secured orders worth Rs 418.1 bn at the group level during the quarter ended 30 June 2022, registering a growth of 57% over the corresponding quarter of the previous year. International orders at Rs 178.4 bn during the quarter comprised 43% of the total order inflow.

The consolidated order book of the group is at a record Rs 3.63 tn as on 30 June 2022, with international orders having a share of 28%.

L&T has remained investors' favorite share for a long time now. But did you know that L&T does not have one of the characteristics of fundamentally strong stocks?

One of the characteristics of fundamentally strong stocks is high promoter holding, but L&T is one of the 5 stocks with zero promoter holdings.

Further, in news from the IT sector, Wipro has some big news for its investors.

Yesterday, Bengaluru-headquartered Wipro announced the signing of a new five-year contract with Finnish telecom equipment maker Nokia for digital transformation.

The new pact is aimed at 'driving digital transformation' and 'efficiencies in global business services' of Nokia.

The new agreement builds on a partnership originally established over 20 years ago.

Wipro, as part of the agreement, will deliver global business services in support of Nokia's renewed operating model, focusing on process optimization, touchless processing, and enhanced user and customer experience across order management supply chain, finance, and accounting operations.

For Nokia, this represents a major step towards the digitalization of its operations by leveraging Wipro's unique transformation and innovation capabilities.

According to Vinay Firake, Wipro's senior vice president and managing director of the Nordic region, the company's goal is to "enable Nokia to win in the 5G world and beyond".

While an official statement on the partnership has been issued on 26 July Wipro noted that it had, in the press release issued along with the financial results of FY22, mention the deal without naming the customer or detailing the tenure and size.

This news might finally be a breath of good news for the investors because lately, all IT stocks are falling.

Following the trend of all IT stocks, Wipro's share price is falling. On the bourses, shares of Wipro have tumbled over 43% so far in the calendar year 2022. In comparison, Nifty50 and the S&P BSE Sensex have tanked 8% each.

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