Asian share markets climbed today as the Ukraine conflict and Western sanctions on Russia muddied the outlook for markets and the global economic recovery.

The Hang Seng and the Shanghai Composite are trading up by 0.2% and 1.2%, respectively. The Nikkei is trading up by 1.5%.

In US stock markets, Wall Street's ended sharply higher on Thursday, led by a 3% gain in the Nasdaq, in a dramatic market reversal as US President Joe Biden unveiled harsh new sanctions against Russia after Moscow began an all-out invasion of Ukraine.

After consulting counterparts from the group of seven nations, Biden announced measures to impede Russia's ability to do business in the world's major currencies, along with sanctions against banks and state-owned enterprises.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 92 points, or 0.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 436 points or 3.3%.

Back home, Indian share markets opened on a strong note today.

Following the overnight recovery in global markets, the domestic benchmark indices started trade sharply higher today and snapped their 7-day losing streak.

Meanwhile, investors are considering the possible inflation and growth shocks to the global economy from the conflict and ensuing sanctions.

At present, the BSE Sensex is trading up by 1,189 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty is trading higher by 361 points.

Tata Motors and Tata Steel are among the top gainers today.

Britannia Industries and Nestle India are among the top losers today.

The broader markets were seen putting up an impressive show outperforming the benchmarks.

The BSE Mid Cap and BSE Small Cap indices are trading up by 3.8% and 4.1%, respectively.

All sectoral indices are trading in the green with stocks in the realty sector, metal sector and power sector witnessing most of the buying.

Shares of Fine Organic Industries hit their 52-week high today.

The rupee is trading at 75.30 against the US$.

Crude oil prices jumped nearly 3% today as Russia's invasion of Ukraine stoked global supply concerns as markets brace for the potential impact of trade sanctions on major crude exporters Russia.

Gold prices are trading down by 1.2% at Rs 50,947 per 10 grams.

In news from the defence sector, Bharat Electronics is among the top buzzing stock today.

Providing a further boost to the 'Make in India' initiative of the government in the defence sector, the acquisition wing of the Ministry of Defence has signed a contract for Rs 10.8 bn with Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) for the retro-modification of Commander Sight of Battle Tanks-T-90.

The retro-modification will be carried out in 957 T-90 tanks of the Indian Army.

'Commander sight of Battle Tank T-90, India's premier battle tank, is presently fitted with Image Converter (IC) tube-based sight for night viewing. Based on the requirement projected by the Indian Army, DRDO and BEL have jointly designed and developed an advanced Mid Wave Thermal Image (MWIR) based sight as a replacement for the existing IC-based sight,' said the defence ministry.

As per the defence ministry, the successful indigenous development of thermal imager-based Commander Sight will provide further fillip to indigenous research and development (R&D) and defence manufacturing.

The new retro-modified commander sight employs a thermal imager capable of detecting the targets at 8 km during day and night and a laser ranger finder (LRF) to find the ranges accurately up to 5 km, thereby enhancing its capability to engage the target at longer ranges.

As per the defence ministry, with the corrections from ballistic software and LRF, the Commander of T-90 can detect, engage and neutralise the targets with phenomenal accuracy. The indigenously developed sight completed extensive evaluations under field conditions successfully, it said.

Bharat Electronics is an Indian government-owned aerospace and defence electronics company. It primarily manufactures advanced electronic products for ground and aerospace applications.

Bharat Electronics' share price is currently trading up by 5.5% on the BSE.

Speaking of the defence sector, have a look at the chart below which shows the top 5 military spending countries in the world as of 2019:

According to a SIPRI report, India was the third-largest military spending country in the world in 2019.

Moving on to news from the telecom sector...

Vodafone Raises Rs 14.4 bn by Selling 2.4% in Indus Towers

UK's Vodafone Group Plc raised around Rs 14.4 bn by selling a 2.4% stake in Indus Towers through a block deal to unnamed investors on Thursday.

Vodafone sold 63.6 million shares held by unit Euro Pacific Securities at Rs 226.8 a share, bulk deal data released late Thursday night on the NSE showed.

After the block deal, Vodafone UK's stake in the telecom tower company was reduced to 25.7%.

The British telco, which held a 28.1% stake in Indus, said on Wednesday that it would sell a 2.4% stake on Thursday through a block deal and was also in talks with one of the tower firm's largest shareholders to sell another 4.7%.

The UK company has also said it was in talks with 'several interested parties to sell its balance stake in the tower company.

Vodafone said the cash it raised via these stake sales would be infused in loss-making Vodafone Idea (Vi).

The UK company and India's Aditya Birla Group wish to subscribe to an issue of equity shares by Vi in their capacity as co-promoters.

Vodafone Idea's share price is currently trading up by 5.7% on the BSE.