Share markets in India are presently trading marginally lower.

The BSE Sensex is trading down by 114 points, down 0.2% at 46,845 levels.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading down by 22 points.

Cipla and HCL Technologies are among the top gainers today. Mahindra & Mahindra and Tata Motors are among the top losers today.

The BSE Mid Cap index is trading down by 0.2%

The BSE Small-Cap index is trading flat.

On the sectoral front, stocks from the oil & gas sector and automobiles sector are witnessing most of the selling pressure.

On the other hand, stocks from the software sector are witnessing most of the buying interest.

US stock futures are trading higher today, indicating a positive opening for Wall Street indices.

Nasdaq Futures are trading up by 37 points (up 0.3%) while Dow Futures are trading up by 11 points (flat).

The rupee is trading at 73.65 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading up 1.1% at Rs 50,871 per 10 grams.

In global markets, gold prices jumped today after top US lawmakers agreed on a US$ 900 billion Covid-19 economic relief package after months of battling and posturing.

Tracking international prices, gold prices surged in Indian markets. On MCX, February gold futures jumped 0.8% to Rs 50,678 per 10 grams. In the previous session, gold futures had edged 0.2% after three days of up move.

Moving on to stock-specific news...

Among the buzzing stocks, today is Reliance.

Reliance Industries (RIL) has announced the start of production of gas from R Cluster, an ultra-deep-water gas field in block KG D6 off the east coast of India, with its partner, Bharat Petroleum (BP).

R Cluster is located about 60 km from the existing KG D6 Control & Riser Platform (CRP) off the Kakinada coast and is the first of the three deep-water gas projects in block KG D6 being developed by RIL and BP.

It is also the deepest offshore gas field in Asia and it is expected to reach plateau gas production of about 12.9 million standard cubic meters per day (mmscmd) in 2021.

The other two projects are Satellites Cluster and MJ. The next project, the Satellites Cluster, is expected to come onstream in 2021 followed by the MJ project in 2022.

The three projects together are expected to meet nearly 15% of India's gas demand by 2023.

Peak gas production from the three fields is expected to be around 30 mmscmd by 2023 which is expected to be about 25% of India's domestic production and will help reduce the country's dependence on imported gas.

These projects will utilize the existing hub infrastructure in KG D6 block.

RIL is the operator of KG D6 with a 66.7% participating interest and BP holds a 33.3% participating interest.

We will keep you posted on more updates from this space. Stay tuned.

At the time of writing, Reliance's share price was trading up by 0.7% on the BSE.

Speaking of the stock markets, Brijesh Bhatia, Research Analyst at Fast Profits Report, talks about how you can make seasonal profits in the stock market, in his latest video for Fast Profits Daily.

In the video below, Brijesh shares the basics of a tool called seasonality analysis and how you can use it to make regular profits without taking too much risk.

Tune in here to find out more:

Moving on to news from the banking sector...

Punjab National Bank and IDBI Bank Close QIP Issue

State-owned Punjab National Bank (PNB) has raised a little over 54% of the targeted fund mop-up through its qualified institutional placement (QIP) with Rs 37.8 billion in the kitty. Private sector IDBI Bank too closed its QIP with Rs 14.4 billion.

PNB said it approved the issuance of 1.1 billion equity shares at an issue price of Rs 35.5 (at a discount of 4.9% from floor price) aggregating to Rs 37.8 billion to be allotted to eligible qualified institutional buyers in the issue. The bank had planned to raise up to Rs 70 billion through the QIP issue.

Meanwhile, LIC-controlled IDBI Bank too closed its QIP at an issue price of Rs 38.6 per share, at a discount of 5% to the floor price of Rs 40.6 per share.

IDBI Bank's QIP was for Rs 20 billion, however, the bank has raised only Rs 14.4 billion from the issue.

The private sector lender had originally targeted to raise Rs 60 billion via QIP, which was downsized to Rs 20 billion when it opened.

Among the investors who were allotted more than 5% of the equity shares in the QIP issue were Punjab National Bank (20.9% subscription); Bank of Baroda (13.9%), State Bank of India (13.9%), Indian Bank (6.9%), Canara Bank (6.9%) and Societe Generale-ODI (5.6%).

Post the allotment of equity shares in the issue, the paid-up equity share capital of IDBI Bank stands increased to Rs 107 billion, comprising of 10.7 billion equity shares.

Speaking of the banking sector, check out the monthly returns of major sectors for the month of March and October 2020 in the chart below.

In the chart above, you can see that 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!