Share markets in India are presently trading marginally higher.

The BSE Sensex is trading up by 53 points, up 0.1% at 43,652 levels.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading up by 20 points.

Bajaj Finserv and Titan are among the top gainers today. IndusInd Bank and Axis Bank are among the top losers today.

The BSE Mid Cap index is trading up by 0.7%

The BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 0.3%

On the sectoral front, stocks from the telecom sector are witnessing most of the buying interest.

On the other hand, stocks from the energy sector are witnessing most of the selling pressure.

US stock futures are trading lower today, indicating a negative opening for Wall Street indices.

Nasdaq Futures are trading flat while Dow Futures are trading down by 195 points (down 0.7%).

The rupee is trading at 74.16 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading up by 0.3% at Rs 50,125 per 10 grams.

In global markets, gold prices edged lower today amid uncertainty over more US stimulus measures.

Tracking weak global cues, gold prices continued to struggle in Indian markets for the fifth day in a row. On MCX, gold edged up 0.1% to Rs 50,029 per 10 grams after suffering losses in the previous four sessions. In the previous session, gold prices had fallen 0.7% or Rs 350 per 10 grams.

Moving on to stock-specific news...

Among the buzzing stocks, today is Infosys.

On November 19, Simplus, an Infosys company, announced that it has collaborated with Salesforce for a vaccine management cloud solution.

The solution has been built on the Salesforce Platform in support of 'Salesforce Work.com for Vaccines' as the Covid-19 pandemic continues.

Combining Simplus' resources, capabilities, and Salesforce consulting and product expertise, the companies have created an end-to-end vaccine management solution to help support the federal government's (the US) mandate for states to be ready to distribute a coronavirus vaccine, a statement said.

Infosys' vaccine management solution covers a broad spectrum of vaccine management, including citizen registration, provider enrolment, supply chain visibility, and vaccine administration.

Within this solution are two communities: one for residents and one for providers.

The resident community is the one-stop-shop for individuals to find information, register with state and local governments, and schedule vaccine appointments.

The provider community, on the other hand, can help providers apply to become a COVID-19 vaccine provider, manage appointments, maintain inventory, log vaccine administration details, and document adverse effects.

The company has also architected the solution in a modular fashion to complement existing systems that may already be in place.

We will keep you updated on all the news from this space. Stay tuned.

At the time of writing, Infosy's share price was trading up by 0.4% on the BSE.

Moving on to news from the banking sector...

SBI Signs MoU with Luxembourg Stock Exchange to Promote Green Finance

State Bank of India (SBI) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSe). The MoU will help SBI and LuxSE set up a long-term cooperation mechanism, and promote ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance) and green finance.

Through this MoU, the Luxembourg Stock Exchange would work towards creating a sustainable environment for issuers, asset managers, and investors in terms of ESG focused funds and bonds.

Dinesh Khara, Chairman of SBI said, "The bank has adopted sustainability as one of its core values. A 'Sustainability and Business Responsibility Policy' for the bank has been put in place and SBI was the first Public Sector Bank in India to publish its Sustainability Report as per Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) framework."

State Bank of India has raised US$ 800 million in the Green Bond Market to date. The MoU with the Luxembourg Stock Exchange will open up new avenues for market development and fundraising in the green bond market.

How this pans out remains to be seen. Meanwhile, stay tuned for more updates from this space.

Speaking of the banking sector, note that the sector was one of the worst affected sectors when Covid-19 struck.

Banking stocks were severely punished. No investor wanted to touch them even with a 10-ft pole.

However, the sentiment has changed now as investors are chasing banking stocks like never before.

Have a look at the monthly returns of major sectors for the month of March and October 2020 in the chart below:

Banks were among the major losers with a cut of 34% in the month of March. Cut to October they are the biggest gainers for the month with 11% returns!

What could be the reason behind such a change in sentiment?