Share markets in India have erased early gains and are presently trading marginally lower. Benchmark indices turned volatile ahead of the release of wholesale inflation data.

The BSE Sensex is trading down by 53 points, while the NSE Nifty is trading down by 14 points.

The BSE Mid Cap index is trading down by 0.2%, while the BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 0.1%.

Sectoral indices are trading on a mixed note with stocks in the power sector and banking sector witnessing selling pressure, while energy stocks are witnessing buying interest.

The rupee is currently trading at 71.39 against the US$.

Speaking of Indian stock markets, in his latest video, Rahul Shah outlines the action you can take if the bull market of 2019 by passed you.

In news from the telecom sector, shares of Vodafone Idea surged over 13% in early trade today after the company reported a consolidated loss of Rs 64.4 billion for the December quarter.

However, shares of the company reversed their early morning gains and dipped 11% after the Supreme court rejected the telcos' plea seeking new schedule of AGR payments.

The company recorded exceptional expenses worth Rs 528 million for adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues in the December quarter. It had made provisions worth Rs 441.5 billion for these dues in the September quarter.

The company's consolidated revenue from operations rose to Rs 110.9 billion in October-December from Rs 108.4 billion in the second quarter, driven by an addition of 8.3 million 4G users in the quarter.

On a sequential basis, the company posted a growth rate of 2.3%. While 4G addition growth was 9.4%, ARPU growth was 1.8%. On a YoY basis, ARPUs were up 22%.

Note that the company had reported its highest ever quarterly loss in the three month period ended 30 September, after it accounted for most of the liabilities related to AGR in the preceding quarter itself.

Coming down heavily on the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for not taking coercive action against telcos for failing to repay, the apex court ordered contempt proceedings against Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.

The next hearing has been scheduled for March 17.

The Apex Court also pulled up the DoT desk officer who wrote to the Attorney General asking him to not insist on payment of dues.

Last month, a bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra had dismissed review petitions of telecom firms seeking review of its earlier order asking them to pay Rs 1.47 trillion in statutory dues by January 23, saying it did not find any "justifiable reason" to entertain them.

Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel and Tata Teleservices had filed modification applications on the time schedule to make payments of over Rs 1 trillion that they owe to DoT as AGR.

How the above developments pan out remains to be seen. Meanwhile, we will keep you updated on the latest developments from this space.

Moving on, as per an article in The Economic Times, the Rs 95-billion initial public offer (IPO) of SBI Cards and Payments Service is likely to be launched in the first week of March.

Earlier this week, the markets regulator gave its in-principal approval to SBI Cards to launch its IPO.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

• The IPO is likely to be priced in a band of Rs 690-700 per share. In the unofficial grey market, SBI shares are being traded at Rs 950-970 per share, about 38% over its likely IPO price.

Parent State Bank of India added a record 3.6 lakh shareholders in December quarter as a portion of the shares in the SBI Cards IPO are reserved for the state-owned lender's shareholders.

The company will offer up to 130.5 million equity shares via the offer for sale route, according to the draft red herring prospectors (DRHP).

How this IPO sails through remains to be seen. Stay tuned for more updates from this space.

Speaking of IPOs, in one of the editions of The 5 Minute WrapUp, Ankit Shah shared how IPOs offer insights into the mood of the stock markets.

He picked the six most successful IPOs of 2019 and checked the retail investor enthusiasm for them.

Obviously, all these IPOs were oversubscribed across investor categories. But the level of retail investor enthusiasm differed widely, depending on the overall market sentiments. This can be seen in the chart below:

Are Retail Investors Back in the IPO Game?

Here's what Ankit wrote about it...

• Clearly, IRCTC witnessed the highest number of bids for the retail category. Factoring in the discount of Rs 10 per share for the retail category, the total bids were worth a whopping Rs 3,242 crore. Over five times the entire IPO size!
  
  Polycab India and the recent IPO of CSB Bank also received a strong thumbs-up from retail investors.

Does this hint that retail investors are coming back to the markets? Could we witness of a flurry of IPOs in the coming months?

It would be interesting to see how this trend pans out in the coming months.

In one of his recent articles, he has explained why keeping a tab on the IPO market is vital to your overall investing goals. You can read it here: What I Learnt from IPOs in 2019.