Major Asian share markets opened lower today after jitters over the speed of rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve drove down Wall Street shares overnight.

The Nikkei fell by 1.3% while the Hang Seng was down by 0.5%. The Shanghai Composite is trading lower by 0.3%.

Wall Street indices ended sharply lower on Monday as investors fretted about a US Federal Reserve gathering later this week in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, that is expected to reinforce a strong commitment by the central bank to stamp out inflation.

The Dow Jones was down by 1.9% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq was down by 2.6%.

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

Benchmark indices opened in red today following the trend on SGX Nifty. But as the session progressed, losses were erased.

Sentiment again got affected and the markets are currently trading on a negative note.

At present, the BSE Sensex is trading lower by 263 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading down by 61 points.

In intraday trade, the BSE Sensex fell over 700 points but soon recovered. Talk about volatility!

Bajaj Finserv and M&M are among the top gainers today.

Infosys and Tech Mahindra are among the top losers today.

Broader markets are trading on a positive note. The BSE Mid Cap index is up by 0.7% while the BSE Small Cap index is trading higher by 0.5%.

Sectoral indices are trading on a positive note with the exception of IT, utilities, and the power sector.

Meanwhile stocks in the metal and capital goods sector witness most of the buying.

Eicher Motors and Solar Industries hit their 52-week high today.

In the commodity markets, gold prices rise. Gold prices are trading higher by Rs 20. Currently, gold prices are trading at Rs 51,183 per 10 grams.

It seems that amidst crashing markets, rising interest rates, and inflationary pressures, the only safe place to invest would be gold.

After all gold has a history of doing well in a market crashes. But not this time. Gold prices have taken a hit lately.

After rising at the end of July, gold prices are falling again. Take a look at the chart below.

 The recent decline in gold has had a domino effect on gold loan financiers in India. The falling gold price is one of the main factors why Muthoot Finance's share price is falling.

Meanwhile, silver prices are trading lower at Rs 55,798 per kg. Silver prices have fallen a lot in recent days.

The rupee is trading at 79.9 against the US dollar.

In news from the IT sector, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) announced that South Africa's Absa Corporate and Investment Bank (CIB) has appointed the Indian IT giant to digitally transform its investment banking services.

TCS will offer its 'BaNCS' platform to enable on-cloud trading and investment services for Absa CIB's clients.

TCS will power Absa CIB's front- and mid-end operational services, which include trade management, clearing and settlement of trades, and other "operational and administrative" services for asset managers, stock brokers, and other users of Absa's service.

TCS' BaNCS platform is used across 450 locations around the world and covers more than 1 billion accounts for banking networks globally.

The services will be hosted on Amazon Web Services' (AWS) cloud platform and will help Absa improve the speed as well as safety of transactions.

Did you know that TCS has the highest revenue among the top 5 IT companies in India by revenue?

Moving on to news from the banking sector, the Bank of India and the Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency (IREDA) have joined hands.

As stakeholders in sustainable development and carbon compliant economy, the Bank of India and IREDA have joined hands for co-lending, co- origination & loan syndication in the renewable energy segment among others.

Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed at the headquarters of the Bank of India on 22nd August 2022 in the august presence of the MD & CEO of Bank of India - Mr. A K Das & CMD IREDA- Mr. P K Das.

The partnership with IREDA, a Mini Ratna which is an established player in the field of renewable energy, would provide a good opportunity to the bank in terms of ESG business.

Further, in news from the banking sector, the Bank of Baroda (BoB) is set to raise funds.

BoB on Monday said it will raise debt capital of Rs 25 bn crores through Additional Tier 1 bonds or AT1 bonds in single or multiple tranches.

AT1 bonds, as these instruments are popularly known, are a type of perpetual debt instrument that banks use to augment their core equity base and thus comply with Basel III norms.

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