Asian share markets opened mixed today. Some markets in Asia opened higher as investors took heart from gains on Wall Street while staying cautious over the economic impacts of inflation.

Whereas others were lower on the back foot as traders returned from a long weekend break to play catch-up with losses across Asia at the end of last week, with fears of a recession the key driver of selling.

The Nikkei rose by 0.6% while the Hang Seng dropped by 0.8%. The Shanghai Composite is down 0.1%.

Wall Street stocks shrugged off early weakness Friday to secure solid gains as markets try to pivot from a grim first half of 2022 dominated by inflation worries.

Equities spent much of the morning in the red, absorbing an industry survey showing slowing growth in the manufacturing sector.

The Dow Jones was up 1.1% while the tech-heavy Nasdaq was higher by 0.9%.

Back home, Indian share markets are trading on a negative note, following mixed global cues.

At present, the BSE Sensex is trading lower by 229 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading lower by 76 points.

SBI and ICICI bank are among the top gainers today.

Tata Steel and TCS are among the top losers today.

Broader markets are also trading mixed. The BSE Mid Cap index is flat. The BSE Small Cap index is trading higher by 0.2%.

Sectoral indices are trading mixed. Stocks in the metal and information technology sector witnessing heavy selling.

Rice stocks in India are in focus lately after reports suggested India's rice stock could be barely over the buffer norms come 1 October.

In the commodity markets, gold prices fell heavily. Today, prices are down by Rs 1,218, trading at Rs 50,699 per 10 grams.

Meanwhile, silver prices are trading higher at Rs 58,893 per kg.

Cryptos are trading on a negative note.

Investors in crypto markets are not having a good night's sleep these days as coins continue to tumble in the face of a global market selloff and rising interest rates.

Many crypto exchanges have paused bitcoin withdrawals which lead to a sharp fall in the entire crypto market.

Speaking of stock markets, we know that blue-chip stocks give you regular dividends and will slowly but surely lead you to capital gains. Also, the existing price of blue-chip stocks is very high.

One does not have a chance of a quick windfall gain in the blue-chip stock. However, penny stocks are available at a low price, and because their businesses have recently started growing they hold a chance of big windfall gain.

In news from the banking sector, the biggest merger in Indian corporate history is happening.

The proposed merger of HDFC Bank and its parent firm HDFC is another step closer to its amalgamation as the proposal has been accepted by stock exchanges National Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange while noting that they have "no objection".

The stock exchanges received correspondence from the stock exchanges on Saturday.

However, the amalgamation scheme remains subject to various statutory and regulatory approvals, including approvals from the Competition Commission of India, Reserve Bank of India, the National Company Law Tribunal, and the respective shareholders and creditors of the companies.

In early April, the country's largest private sector lender HDFC Bank announced that it will merge with mortgage lender Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC).

On Friday, shares of HDFC Bank closed at Rs 1,355, up 0.5 percent, whereas that of HDFC at Rs 2,205, up 1.6 percent.

However, this upward movement is finally a relief for the investors because the markets had not responded well to the merger news. Immediately after the news of the merger, the share price starts falling.

Moving on to news from the metal sector, NMDC registers a huge fall in its iron ore production.

State-owned NMDC has registered a fall of about 14 percent in its iron ore production at 2.57 million tonnes (MT) during June 2022.

In June last year, it had produced 2.98 MT of iron ore, NMDC said in a BSE filing.

Last month the company also saw its sales falling to 1.90 MT, from 3.18 MT in June 2021, a year-on-year (YoY) fall of 40 percent.

The company's production from mines in Chhattisgarh remained flat during June at 1.94 MT. The output from Karnataka mines fell to 0.63 MT as compared to 1.04 MT in June 2021.

The sales of minerals produced from Chhattisgarh shrank to 1.58 MT as against 2.22 MT in June last year.

From Karnatka deposits, the company sold 0.32 MT of iron ore, lower from 0.96 MT in the same month of 2021. Hyderabad-based NMDC, under the ministry of steel, is the country's largest producer of iron ore.

The company is producing about 35 MT of iron ore from its major iron-producing units which are the Bailadila sector in Chhattisgarh and Donimalai in the Bellary-Hospet region in Karnataka.

Besides iron ore, NMDC is also involved in the exploration of a wide range of minerals like copper, rock phosphate, limestone, dolomite, and gypsum.