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

The BSE Sensex is trading up by 515 points, up 1% at 51,246 levels.

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading up by 155 points.

Mahindra & Mahindra and Hindalco are among the top gainers today. Britannia and Divi's Laboratories are among the top losers today.

The BSE Mid Cap index is trading up by 1.4%.

The BSE Small Cap index is trading up by 1.5%.

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

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

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

Nasdaq Futures are trading up by 76 points (up 0.6%) while Dow Futures are trading up by 128 points (up 0.4%)

The rupee is trading at 72.86 against the US$.

Gold prices are trading up by 0.2% at Rs 47,350 per 10 grams.

Gold prices today edged lower in Indian markets after a strong surge in the previous session. On MCX, gold futures fell 0.1% to Rs 47,200 per 10 grams in their fifth fall in six sessions. In the previous session, gold had surged 1.2%.

Note that gold prices have been very volatile this year after hitting a record high of Rs 56,200 in August last year. Global gold prices have also swung wildly this year, depending on the movement of US bond yields and the dollar. In addition, import duty cut by the Indian government in the recent budget has also impacted domestic gold price.

Moving on to stock-specific news...

Among the buzzing stocks, today is Mahindra & Mahindra.

Shares of Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) rallied on the BSE today after the firm reported a healthy performance in the quarter ended December (Q3FY21) with a 39.6% year-on-year (YoY) growth in net profit at Rs 5.3 billion.

The company's revenue from operations grew by 16% YoY in Q3FY21 with strong tractor volumes. The company sold 97,420 tractors in the domestic market in Q3FY21, registering a 20% growth over the corresponding period on a robust rural story but sales from its automotive business fell 7% to 115,272 vehicles due to challenges on the supply side and commodity prices.

At the operating level, its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) rose by 33.4% YoY and margins expanded 220 bps to 17% compared to the corresponding quarter, driven by cost optimization and operating leverage.

However, the company posted an exceptional loss of Rs 12.1 billion for the December quarter, representing impairment provisions for certain long-term assets and other exposures. The profit before exceptional loss stood at Rs 17.5 billion for the quarter.

The company expects the industry to log around 20%YoY volume growth in the tractor segment for FY21. Outlook for domestic tractor industry in the near to medium term stays healthy on account of good water reservoir levels, high crop acreage (Rabi acreage at the highest level of 65 million hectares), procurement (Kharif procurement up 27%YoY in 9MFY21), and remunerative prices.

At the time of writing, Mahindra & Mahindra's share price was trading up by 6.5% on the BSE.

Speaking of the automobile sector, note that the sector has rebounded sharply from its March lows.

The auto index entered the greed phase in September 2019 and will stay there until December 2021. This means there is still a lot of fuel left for auto stocks.

How automobile stocks perform in the coming months remains to be seen.

Moving on to news from the Indian pharma sector...

Q3FY21 Results: Divi's Laboratories Reports 31% YoY Rise in Net Profit

Divi's Laboratories reported a 31% year-on-year (YoY) increase in net profit to Rs 4.7 billion and a 22% YoY increase in revenue to Rs 17 billion for the quarter ended December.

Operating profit or earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) for the Hyderabad-based company rose 45% from the previous year to Rs 6.8 billion whereas margins expanded 640 basis points to 40.5% from 34.1% last year. The company said that its planning, design, research, and execution contributed to improvement in margins.

In general, its Customs Synthesis business has higher margins as compared to generics. However, this quarter had a higher share of generics (60:40). Despite this, there was an improvement in margins.

In December 2020, Divi's Laboratories became only the second listed pharma company in India after Sun Pharma to cross the Rs 1 trillion market capitalization mark.

The company in its conference call has said that it is confident of sales and margins improving in the future. It also said that it is venturing into contract media API in a big way for high volume products.

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