After opening the day on a strong note, share markets in India lost most of the morning gains and are trading on a flat note, marginally above the dotted line. Sectoral indices are trading on a mixed note with stocks in the realty sector and stocks in the pharma sector leading the losses, while stocks in the auto sector are trading in green.

The BSE Sensex is trading up by 52 points (up 0.2%), and the NSE Nifty is trading, up by 8 points (up 0.1%). Meanwhile, the BSE Mid Cap index is trading down by 0.5%, while the BSE Small Cap index is trading down by 0.5%. The rupee is trading at 66.73 to the US$.

Steel major, SAIL announced that it achieved the best ever export monthly volume of steel in last ten years, in the month of February 2017.

A total of 103,000 tonnes of steel was exported last month, which includes the first time shipment of CE marked plates from the new plate mill of SAIL's Rourkela Steel Plant to Europe.

The new 4.3-meter-wide Plate Mill with initial capacity of 1.0 MT can be augmented to 1.8 MT and is equipped with state-of-art technology which can produce wide range of plates with close dimensional tolerance, perfect flatness and surface finish to meet stringent international standards.

The other products which found their way into export markets include wire rods, hot rolled coils, billets, and slabs. In the current year 2016-17, SAIL has already exported 6.82 lakh tonnes. In a statement the company said it aims at exporting 10% of its total production and at doubling the volumes for next fiscal in FY 17-18.

SAIL plans to soon diversify its exports basket with cold-rolled and galvanized products from New Cold Rolling Mill at Bokaro, structures from New Universals Section Mill at Burnpur and Medium Structural Mill at Durgapur. Through the enriched product offering the Company aims to consolidate its presence not only in South East Asian market but also in Europe.

Steel Demand has Outpaced Supply Over the Last 5 Years

Overall, India's steel exports registered a three-fold increase to 0.889 MT in January this year, compared to the year-ago month. The recent SAIL numbers only add positivity to the sector's growth trend.

The massive jump in exports comes amid government providing extensive support to the domestic steel industry by way of various trade remedial measures including anti-dumping.

The Ministry of Steel is taking a three-pronged approach to support the domestic steel industry, which has faced low demand and the influx of cheap imports. It is also trying to lower input costs.

According to steel secretary, efforts are underway to mandate the use of 'Made in India' steel in government tenders to boost consumption. Also, the government is in the final stages of General Financial Rules (GFR) which decide all government tenders.

At the time of writing, SAIL share price was trading down by 0.2%.

Moving on to news from stocks in the auto sector. Tata Motors share price was one of the leading gainers on the Indian indices today as the company reported at 1.9% increase in total sales for the month.

Tata reported a 1.9% increase in total sales in February at 47,573 units compared to 46,674 in the same month last year.

Domestic sales of Tata Motors' commercial and passenger vehicles were at 42,679 units in February as against 41,532 units in the same month last year, up 2.76%.

The commercial vehicles sales, however, dropped 1% to 30,407 last month over the same period a year before.

Tata Motors also exported lesser number of vehicles in February (4,894) as compared to the same month last year (5,142). The cumulative number of exports was 13% higher though -- from 51,679 to 58,362.

The company's bus sales continued to grow by 30% in February 2017, driven particularly by State Transport Undertaking (STU) orders, supported by intercity and staff application segments. Demand from schools is also gaining momentum, the company said in a statement.

Improved consumer sentiments, waning effect of notebandi and aggressive push by the market players has led to recovery of Small & Light Commercial Vehicles (S&LCV) segment volumes, this month, it added. The volumes were mostly driven by a positive buyers' sentiment couple of months out of notebandi, and investments ahead of the feared price rise in the new fiscal.

At the time of writing, Tata Motors share price was trading up by 3.6%.