Share markets in India are presently trading on a negative note. Investors turned cautious ahead of global as well as domestic macroeconomic data release and key events due later this week.

The US Federal Reserve's Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will begin its two-day policy meeting later today. Back home, the government will release India's retail inflation and factory output data on Thursday.

The BSE Sensex is trading down by 151 points while the NSE Nifty is trading down by 42 points. The BSE Mid Cap index is trading down by 0.6% and the BSE Small Cap index is trading down by 0.3%.

Barring consumer durable stocks, all sectoral indices are trading on a negative note with stocks in the IT sector, realty sector, and energy sector witnessing maximum selling pressure.

The rupee is trading at 70.88 against the US$.

Speaking of the Indian stock markets, smallcap analyst Richa Agarwal talks about the ongoing economic slowdown, an upcoming rebound in the small cap space, and her number 1 stock pick for 2020 in the video below.

Tune in to find out more...

In news from the insurance sector, shares of life insurance companies are witnessing buying interest today on reports that the government may propose to raise foreign direct investment (FDI) limit in the sector to 74% from 49% currently in the Union Budget for 2020-21.

Shares of New India Assurance surged over 8% while HDFC Standard Life Insurance, GIC and SBI Life Insurance gained in the range of 2-4%.

As per an article in The Economic Times, the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) sought the views of various stakeholders on the matter in a December 2 letter at the direction of the government.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

• "The government is seriously contemplating opening up the sector as it wants long-term stable money to be invested in the country. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) is seeking inputs from industry people on government instructions and a report is expected to be submitted soon."

Buying interest was also seen as the industry reported 37.2% year-on-year (YoY) growth in new premiums between April-November.

Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) beat the industry in the collections with a 44.5% YoY growth in new premium at Rs 1.2 lakh crore.

On an absolute new premium collection basis, HDFC Life Insurance saw a 26.5% YoY rise in new premiums to Rs 107.7 billion for the April to November period.

Note that earlier in 2015, the government had raised FDI in insurance via automatic route to 49% from 26%.

In the July budget, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had announced that the government will examine suggestions from various stakeholders to further open up FDI in the insurance sector.

In order to facilitate the higher investment limit, the government will have to amend the Insurance Act, alter provisions pertaining to Indian ownership, monitor the solvency of foreign firms so that the local business is unaffected by any challenges faced by the parent and that they stick around to honor long-term contracts.

How this all pans out remains to be seen. Meanwhile, we will keep you updated on the latest developments from this space.

Speaking of the life insurance sector, this is one sector which is a clear outperformer in this volatile market.

Shares of the three listed life insurance players have outperformed the BSE Sensex by a huge margin.

With the huge future potential of the sector, the outperformance is not surprising. India's life insurance penetration i.e. insurance premiums as a percentage of GDP is very low compared to the global average.

Life Insurance Sector - Megatrend in the Making

The industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 11-13% over the next five years. India's large youth population and growing awareness about insurance is bound to accelerate growth.

This is a megatrend which is here to stay for a long, long time.

Moving on to news from the telecom sector, the government has warned all telecom licence holders against any delays in the payment of dues related to adjusted gross revenue (AGR).

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has asked to seek clarifications by December 13 on any doubts that may not have been covered in the recent Supreme Court judgment.

The court has given three months to companies to make the payments.

In October, the Supreme Court decided in favour of the government's contention that all revenue, including that from non-core sources, would be counted in calculating AGR.

Licence holders have to pay about 8% of AGR to the DoT as fees. Telcos also pay about 3-4% of AGR as spectrum usage charges (SUC).

Last month, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Tata Teleservices filed for a limited review of judgement.

While Airtel has sought a review of the interest, penalty and interest on penalty, Vodafone Idea's petition has further urged the Supreme Court to have a relook at the amounts attributed to notional revenue.

Bharti Airtel had later appealed to the court to allow the telco and government to agree on quantum of AGR based dues that need to be paid and the timeline for payments.

The company's board recently approved a proposal to raise up to US$ 4 billion to prepare for the payments.

Stay tuned for more updates from this space.