Indian share markets witnessed volatile trading activity throughout the day today and ended higher.

Benchmark indices recovered losses and closed with a steady rise, aided by fresh buying in select pharma and private banking stocks.

The Sensex had dropped to a low of 56,543 in early deals. Thereafter, the index recouped losses and rallied to a high of 57,512 - up 969 points from the day's low.

The NSE Nifty rallied 279 points from the day's low of 16,833, to a high of 17,112.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood higher by 296 points (up 0.5%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed higher by 83 points (up 0.5%).

Tech Mahindra and Cipla were among the top gainers today.

Hindalco and ONGC, on the other hand, were among the top losers today.

The SGX Nifty was trading at 17,120, up by 122 points, at the time of writing.

The BSE MidCap index and the BSE SmallCap index ended up by 0.5% and 0.3%, respectively.

Sectoral indices ended on a positive note with stocks in the healthcare sector, consumer durables sector and banking sector witnessing most of the buying interest.

Metal stocks, on the other hand, witnessed selling pressure.

Shares of KPIT Technologies and Navin Fluorine hit their respective 52-week highs today.

At 8:00 am today, the SGX Nifty was trading up by 79 points, or 0.5% higher at 17,185 levels. Indian share markets are headed for a positive opening today following the positive trend on SGX Nifty.

Asian stock markets ended on a mixed note today.

The Hang Seng ended up by 0.1%, while the Shanghai Composite ended down by 0.1%. The Nikkei ended down by 0.4% in today's session.

US stock futures are trading on a flat note today with the Dow Futures trading up by 11 points.

The rupee is trading at 75.00 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading on a flat note today at Rs 48,138 per 10 grams.

Speaking of stock markets, India's #1 trader Vijay Bhambwani talks about a bull trap ahead in metals, in his latest video for Fast Profits Daily.

In the video below, Vijay tells why going long on metals or metal stocks now could get you stuck in a bull trap.

Tune in to the video below to find out more:

In news from the oil & gas sector, BPCL was among the top buzzing stocks today.

Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), a 'Maharatna' and a Fortune Global 500 company is aiming at 1 gigawatt (GW) of renewable energy portfolio by 2025.

The collaboration with Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI) will help both organizations to leverage each other's expertise to pursue opportunities in renewable energy space including solar, wind, electric mobility, hydrogen and waste-to-energy.

Over a longer term, BPCL is eyeing a renewable energy portfolio of 10 GW by 2040.

The memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by BPCL's Head of Renewable Energy Business, Amit Garg, and SECI's Executive Director, Sanjay Sharma.

In line with government of India's (GOI) objective of renewable energy (RE) capacity development and faster adoption of electric mobility in the country, BPCL intends to diversify further in the RE Sector and electric mobility sector, and take up the development of environmental, social and governance (ESG) projects.

Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI), a PSU under Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), is engaged in promotion and development of various RE resources, especially solar/wind energy, RE based storage systems, trading of power, R&D as well as RE based products like Green Hydrogen, Green Ammonia, RE powered EV etc.

Earlier, BPCL announced the roadmap to expand its portfolio of renewable energy with solar, wind and biofuels, and achieve net zero in Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2040.

BPCL share price ended the day up by 0.6% on the BSE.

Speaking of PSUs, have a look at the chart below which shows the performance of BSE PSU index compared to BSE Sensex over the past few years.

As can be seen from the chart above, over the last decade, Rs 100 invested in BSE PSU index would have eroded to Rs 80, compared to almost 3x gains for the Sensex.

Here's what Richa Agarwal, lead Smallcap Analyst at Equitymaster, wrote about PSU stocks in one of the edition of Profit Hunter:

• However, it will be folly to paint all PSUs with the same brush. There are some exceptions in this space, which put their private peers to shame.
  
  In a recent editorial, I shared an opportunity in a PSU stock that is riding and enabling an irreversible megatrend - digitisation.

One of Richa's stock recommendation (subscription required) is a stock from this space. This smallcap PSU is leading the digitisation drive from the frontlines.

Richa believes it could be a perfect bet for these uncertain times. Hidden Treasure subscribers can read the recommendation here.

And if you're not a subscriber, here's where you can sign up.

Moving on to news from the IPO space...

HP Adhesives Makes Strong Debut on the Bourses

HP Adhesives shares made a strong debut on Dalal Street today. On BSE, the stock of HP Adhesives, a Mumbai-based manufacturer of adhesives and sealants, listed at Rs 319 apiece, a premium of 16.4% over its issue price of Rs 274.

On NSE, HP Adhesives shares opened at Rs 315 apiece, a premium of almost 15%.

The listing was in line with the trend seen in the grey market prior to the debut. Dealers said HP Adhesives' GMP or grey market premium stood at Rs 80 on Friday.

The company's listing on BSE and NSE comes at a time when most IPOs have received a robust response from investors, though the recent sell-off in the market has dented the appeal of few debutants.

HP Adhesives' IPO was open for subscription from 15 December to 17 December. The initial share sale was subscribed an overall 21 times, receiving bids for 5.3 crore equity shares as against the 25.3 lakh equity shares on offer.

The portion reserved for non-institutional investors (NIIs) was subscribed 19 times, and that for retail investors 81.2 times. The category of qualified institutional buyer (QIB) saw a subscription of 1.8 times.

HP Adhesives plans to utilise the proceeds from the initial share sale to fund its working capital requirements and capex for capacity expansion.

HP Adhesives share price ended the day up by 22.2% on the BSE.