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

The BSE Sensex is trading down by 369 points, down 0.7% at 51,334 levels.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading down by 95 points.

GAIL and ONGC are among the top gainers today. ICICI Bank and Shree Cement are among the top losers today.

The BSE Mid Cap index is trading up by 0.5%.

The BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 0.7%.

On the sectoral front, stocks from the energy sector, are witnessing most of the buying interest.

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

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

Nasdaq Futures are trading down by 68 points (down 0.5%) while Dow Futures are trading down by 27 points (down 0.1%)

The rupee is trading at 72.73 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading up by 0.3% at Rs 46,360 per 10 grams.

In global markets, gold rates were steady, up 0.4%, after dropping to the lowest in two months in the previous session. On Wednesday, gold fell to US$ 1,769, the lowest intraday level since November 30, as a strong dollar and higher bond yields hurt the precious metal's demand as a haven asset.

Gold was steady today in Indian markets after a five-day slide that pushed prices to a nearly 8-month low. On MCX, gold futures were up 0.4% to Rs 46,407 per 10 grams.

Note that in the last five sessions, gold has skidded nearly Rs 2,000 per 10 grams in tandem with a decline in global rates.

Moving on to stock-specific news...

Among the buzzing stocks, today is GAIL.

Gas Authority of India (GAIL) is going to open its buyback program on February 25, 2021, for up to 69.7 million fully paid-up equity shares of face value Rs 10 each, representing 1.5% of the total number of equity shares in the issued, subscribed and paid-up equity share capital of the company.

The share buyback will close on March 10.

The company will buy back shares from all the existing shareholders/beneficial owners of equity shares of the company as of the record date, January 28, 2021, on a proportionate basis, through the "tender offer" process at a price of Rs 150 per equity share for an aggregate consideration not exceeding Rs 10.5 billion.

The funds for the buyback will be met out of internally-generated cash resources of the company, it added.

GAIL is an Indian public sector natural gas processing and distribution company headquartered in New Delhi, India. It is a state-owned enterprise of the Government of India, under the administrative control of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.

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

At the time of writing, GAIL's share price was trading up by 7.7% on the BSE.

Moving on to news from the banking sector...

IndusInd Bank Raises Rs 20.2 Billion Via Conversion of Warrants

IndusInd Bank promoters IndusInd International Holdings (IIHL) said that it has converted warrants in the bank by investing Rs 20.2 billion. The investment was done by raising funds through a rights share sale to the holders of IIHL and from the sale of some assets that the company held.

The promoter entities IndusInd and IIHL have also said that they have pledged 42.7 million shares or 5.6% of the equity with Catalyst Trusteeship, in a stock exchange filing.

IIHL has pledged the shares with Deutsche Bank and Barclays to raise funds which will be used to make investments and qualify as an operating company ahead of its listing.

As the group tries to overcome the complexities involved in the holding company, it plans to list IIHL in one of the international markets so that more than 600 shareholders from 34 different countries have a route to monetize or exit their ownership of IndusInd Bank.IHHL plans to list in September, likely in Mauritius. The decision will be made in April 2021.IIHL will also monetize some of its "non-core assets" to raise funds, which will be used to hike its stake by converting warrants in the bank into shares, the company said.

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

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.