Share markets in India are presently trading on a volatile note.

The BSE Sensex is trading up by 11 points, flat, at 47,960 levels.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading up by 13 points.

Dr Reddy's Lab and Bajaj Finserv are among the top gainers today. UltraTech Cement and HCL Technologies are among the top losers today.

The BSE Mid Cap index is trading up by 1.3%.

The BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 1.1%.

On the sectoral front, stocks from the healthcare sector and real estate sector, are witnessing most of the buying interest.

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

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

Nasdaq Futures are trading up by 9 points (up 0.1%) while Dow Futures are trading up by 68 points (up 0.2%)

The rupee is trading at 74.73 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading down 0.4% at Rs 47,194 per 10 grams.

Gold prices in India slipped today amid softer global rates. On MCX, gold futures were marginally lower at Rs 47,380 per 10 grams. In the previous session, gold had hit a two-month high when it rose to Rs 47,850 per 10 grams.

Speaking of the precious yellow metal, how lucrative has gold been as a long-term investment in India?

The chart below shows the annual returns on gold over the last 15 years...

As you can see, barring just two years - 2013 and 2015, gold has delivered positive returns in 13 of the last 15 years.

The recent price volatility in the bullion market has rattled many traders. Even with the recent volatility in prices, gold remains among the best-performing commodities this year to combat the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

Moving on to stock-specific news...

Among the buzzing stocks, today is Subex.

Shares of the Bengaluru-based technology company, Subex, rose as much as 14% to hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 59.8, ahead of the launch of its new artificial intelligence (AI) automation platform on Thursday, April 22.

"We would like to inform you that Subex will be launching the new AI automation platform on Thursday, April 22, 2021, and specific details of the same will be unveiled on the launch day," Subex said in a stock exchange filing on Monday, April 19, 2021.

The company's shares witnessed higher than usual trading volumes as 3.6 million shares changed hands on the BSE compared with an average of 2.9 million shares traded daily in the past two weeks.

Subex shares have also surged a whopping 1,568% on the BSE from a 52-week low of Rs 3.6.

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

At the time of writing, shares of Subex were trading up by 13% on the BSE.

In news from the software sector...

Tech Mahindra Acquires DigitalOnUs

Tech Mahindra announced that it has acquired a 100% stake in DigitalOnUS, a hybrid cloud and DevOps services provider, for a consideration of US$ 120 million, to strengthen its cloud-native development, hybrid cloud infrastructure, and SRE (Site Reliability Engineering) automation.

The acquired company is headquartered in San Jose, California, and reported revenue of US$ 30.6 million, at the end of CY20. The US-based firm has more than 380 employees.

Vivek Agarwal, President-Corporate Development, BFSI and HLS, Tech Mahindra, said, "The acquisition of DigitalOnUs marks an important milestone in Tech Mahindra's growth journey, and will further enhance our capability in cloud-native engineering, and better equip us to develop cutting-edge digital solutions for our customers. scaling up near-shore delivery capability, with a majority in Mexico and Canada will be critical to executing digital transformation programs."

The strategic acquisition will further elevate Tech Mahindra's position as a partner of choice for hybrid-cloud digital transformation, providing end-to-end transformation and new-age capabilities including enterprise DevOps and cloud-native development technologies, said the company in a statement.

Additionally, Tech Mahindra will leverage DigitalOnUs expertise to build multi-cloud platforms, modernize IT security and unlock the cloud operating model for enterprises to accelerate their cloud modernization journey.

Suri Chawla, Founder, and CEO, DigitalOnUs, said, "The acquisition by Tech Mahindra represents an important step in DigitalOnUs's growth journey as it provides our organization and its people with extensive global reach and customer access to scale and tap into many more significant opportunities. Our team at DigitalOnUs is looking forward to being a part of Tech Mahindra and continuing to offer innovative, agile, and industry-leading services to our current and future customers."

The acquisition underlines Tech Mahindra's focus on digital growth, under the NXT.NOW framework, which is focused on leveraging next-generation technologies to deliver disruptive solutions 'today', and further enable digital transformation, meet the evolving and dynamic needs of our customers, said the company.