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

The BSE Sensex is trading up 311 points, up 0.6% at 49,093 levels.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading up by 78 points.

Infosys and Wipro are among the top gainers today. Hindalco and Tata Steel are among the top losers today.

The BSE Mid Cap is trading down by 0.7%.

The BSE Small Cap index is trading down by 0.5%.

On the sectoral front, stocks from the metal sector, are witnessing most of the selling pressure.

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

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

Nasdaq Futures are trading down by 64 points (down 0.5%) while Dow Futures are trading down by 188 points (down 0.6%).

The rupee is trading at 73.43 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading up 0.3% at Rs 49,120 per 10 grams.

In global markets, gold prices continued their slide amid a stronger dollar, a rise in US bond yields, and firm equities. Spot gold fell 0.7%, after sinking 3.4% on January 8.

Tracking a decline in global prices, prices in India continued their downtrend today. On MCX, February gold futures fell 0.4% to  Rs 48,760 per 10 grams, extending losses to Rs 2,350 in just two days. In the previous session, gold had tumbled Rs 2,050 per 10 grams.

Moving on to stock-specific news...

Among the buzzing stocks, today is Avenue Supermarts.

Avenue Supermarts' quarterly revenue rose in line with estimates as customers shopped more during the festive months of October and November.

Revenue of the operator of the DMart chain of hypermarkets rose 11% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 75.4 billion in the quarter ended December, according to an exchange filing.

The company's operating profit rose 15% YoY to Rs 6.9 billion whereas its operating margin stood at 9.1% compared with 8.8% a year ago. The company's net profit also rose 16%YoY to Rs 4.5 billion.

"The quarter has seen further improvement in our business and financial metrics," Neville Noronha, CEO, and MD of Avenue Supermarts was quoted in the release of the results. "Our overall sales and sales mix is now trending very close to our usual times except for specific customer consumption changes post COVID-19."

Segments taking a longer time to recover include apparel, laundry, footwear, travel, and relevant out-of-home usage items. Agile operating expenses management and a surge in festival shopping helped the company deliver a significantly better quarter than the previous two, Noronha said. December, however, did not trend well for the hypermarket chain as the previous two months.

Of its 221 DMart stores, 162 that are older than two years or more did about 96% of sales compared with a year earlier in December. Restricted store operations in certain cities after Diwali due tonight curfews and weekend closure led to significantly larger declines in such stores over a year earlier.

Customers continue to shop more efficiently as limited visits kept basket value higher. Still, the value has reduced compared with peak pandemic levels. The DMart operator said it continues to face inconsistent supply from the sectors other than fast-moving consumer goods. Availability in certain categories is likely to get worse before getting better and can impact sales mix and margins in the near term.

During the quarter, Avenue Supermarts also soft-launched its online shopping option- DMart Ready - in select pin codes of Ahmedabad, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. The company will continue with small trials, reviews, and controlled acceleration of online shopping. We will keep you posted on more updates from this space. Stay tuned.

At the time of writing, Avenue Supermarts' share price was trading down 0.2% on the BSE.

Moving on to news from the mining sector...

Parent Company Vedanta Resources Launches Open Offer To Buy Up To 10% In Vedanta

After a failed delisting and buying shares in bulk deals, billionaire Anil Agarwal's Vedanta Resources has launched a voluntary open offer to acquire up to 10% stake in Vedanta.

The parent has offered to buy up to 371.7 million shares from public shareholders of Vedanta at Rs 160 apiece, according to an exchange filing. If successful, that will cost Rs 59.5 billion.

Note that while the price has been determined in accordance with regulatory rules, it's at a 12% discount to the stock's closing price on January 8.

The open offer comes after the parent acquired a little less than 5% in the company through the bulk deals in December to take its holding to 55.1%. These share purchases followed a failed delisting in October as it didn't get the minimum required shares at the offer price of Rs 87.5 apiece.

Moody's Investors Service had called the failed delisting a credit negative while highlighting the heightened refinancing risk. A successful takeover would have enhanced the parent's access to Vedanta's cash flow, improving bond yields and refinancing options.

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

Speaking of the stock markets, here is an illustration of the four phases that stock goes through during its life cycle. The cycle repeats itself after the stock goes through all these four stages.

This cycle defines everything in markets. If you can master this cycle, then nothing can stop you from making huge profits.