Indian share markets ended the day on a flat note. At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex finished higher by 8 points. While, the NSE Nifty finished up by 2 points. Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Midcap Index ended down by 0.1% while S&P BSE Small Cap Index ended up by 0.1%.

Sectoral indices ended the day on a mixed note with bank stocks and realty stocks leading the gainers. While, consumer durables stocks and capital goods stocks ended the day in red.

Overseas, Asian stock markets finished broadly higher today with shares in Hong Kong leading the region. The Hang Seng is up 1.36% while China's Shanghai Composite is up 0.79% and Japan's Nikkei 225 is up 0.18%. European markets are mixed. The FTSE 100 is higher by 0.09%, while the CAC 40 is leading the DAX lower. They are down 0.53% and 0.52% respectively.

The rupee was trading at Rs 67.08 against the US$ in the afternoon session.

ICICI Bank share price was among the top gainers today after the company declared results for the March 2018 quarter. ICICI Bank surged by 5%, while BSE Bankex ended up 1.3%

The bank reported 49.6% YoY drop in standalone profit at Rs 10.2 billion for the March quarter on sharp rise in provisions for the bad loans.

In the news from the banking sector. As per an article in a leading financial daily, Bank of India (BoI) has an exposure of Rs 2 billion in the Punjab National Bank fraud case and the public-sector lender has initiated insolvency proceedings against Nirav Modi firms.

Diamond merchants Nirav Modi and his uncle Mehul Choksi are alleged to have perpetrated the country's biggest banking sector scam of Rs 130 billion at Punjab National Bank, mainly by way of issuance of fraudulent Letters of Undertaking (LoUs).

The Centre has also intervened in the bankruptcy proceedings of Nirav Modi firms in the US to protect the interests of PNB.

Reportedly, BOI's profitability was hit during the October-December quarter largely due to higher provisioning to some of the large accounts that were downgraded by the Reserve Bank.

During the Q4, the bank recovered about Rs 90 billion of the non-performing assets (NPA) and was hopeful of better results during the current financial year.

Bank of India reported a net loss of Rs 23.4 billion during the third quarter ended 31 December as provisioning for bad loans rose 72% due to high NPA ratio.

NPAs grew to 16.9% of the gross loans by end of December 2017 from 13.4% from December end 2016.

Net NPAs were 10.3% against 7.1%.

Speaking of developments catching the headlines these days, among the top is the massive fraud at Punjab National Bank in conjunction with the diamond merchant Nirav Modi.

It has put the spotlight on the growing bad loan problems in Indian banks.

And brought to the fore the painful issue of willful defaulters especially after the Vijay Mallya fiasco. Today's chart shows the banks that have the highest number of willful defaulters.

Banks with the Highest Number of Willful Defaulters

Unsurprisingly, Punjab National Bank tops the list.

But the others aren't too far behind.

In such an environment, it makes sense for investors to be selective while buying stocks. Focus on value and the underlying fundamentals of the business. Then, they need not worry about the market.

So, what is key to identifying potential multibagger stocks? How does one pick them at the right time and ride them to their full potential? How many multibaggers do you really need to achieve the big riches that you desire?

Most importantly, are there any stocks right now that could turn out to be multibaggers? Click here to know everything that you need to know right now about mutlibagger stocks...

Bank of India share price ended the day up by 2.3%.

Moving on to the news from the economy. As per the United Nations (UN) in its latest report, Indian economic growth slowed down in 2017 to 6.6% from 7.1% in 2016, but a gradual recovery is expected and noted that the country is forecast to grow at 7.2% in 2018 and 7.4% in 2019.

This slowdown came on the back of various factors like the recently introduced Goods and Services Tax (GST) as well as protracted issues of corporate and bank balance sheet problems.

However, UN report expects revival in private investment as the country's corporate sector adjusts to GST, infrastructure spending increases and corporate and bank balance sheets improve with government support.

Further it said that the government's reform measures such as new bankruptcy code and the recapitalization package for public sector banks would also support a gradual recovery in private investment. It also highlighted that consumption strengthened, with faded impacts of note ban during the period.

However, the report also pointed out the issue of rising non-performing assets, saying that bad loans in India have got doubled, and defaults on corporate bonds and syndicated loans have surged in recent years.

By mid-2017, distressed bank loans reached a record high of 9.5 trillion rupees (US$148 billion), but more recent revelations suggest that the actual figure may be higher.

In view of this, UN expressed need to address this problem effectively and if it does not happen then India will continue to face weak private investment and modest economic growth.