After opening the day flat, share markets in India witnessed volatile trading activity throughout the day and ended the day deep in the red. Sectoral indices too ended the day in red, with stocks in the metal sector and stocks in the consumer durables sector leading the gains.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 352 points (down 1%) and the NSE Nifty closed down by 117 points (down 1.1%). The BSE Mid Cap index ended the day down 0.9%, while the BSE Small Cap index ended the day down by 1.1%.

Asian stock markets too finished in red. As of the most recent closing prices, the Hang Seng was down by 2.2% and the Shanghai Composite was down by 0.2%. The Nikkei 225 was down by 0.1%. Meanwhile, European markets were trading on a negative note. The FTSE 100 was down by 0.7%, The DAX, was down by 1.6% while the CAC 40 was down by 1%.

The rupee was trading at Rs 65.17 against the US$ in the afternoon session. Oil prices were trading at US$ 62.36 at the time of writing.

In news from global markets. The ongoing trade war between US and China is showing no signs of stopping, with china imposing fresh tariffs on US goods.

China hit back at the trump administration's plans to slap tariffs on US$ 50 billion in Chinese goods, retaliating with a list of similar duties on key US imports including soybeans, planes, cars, whiskey and chemicals.

China said it would levy 25% tariffs on imports of 106 US products.

Chinese retaliation for the Trump administration's latest move had been widely expected. Beijing typically responds to overseas tariffs with similar ones of its own, and Chinese officials had promised a proportional response if the Trump administration went ahead this week with the next step toward broad tariffs on Chinese goods.

But in the past, China has tended to wait days and sometimes weeks before striking back.

The tit-for-tat tariffs are part of a wider clash looming over trade between the world's two biggest economies. Stock markets around the world have taken a hit in recent weeks as Washington and Beijing have escalated their trade dispute.

The initial public offering was opened for subscription between 22 March and 26 March. The company had fixed a price band of Rs 519-520 per share.Moving on to the news from the IPO space. Shares of India's biggest stock broking firm ICICI Securities got listed on BSE and NSE today.

ICICI Securities had reduced the size of its IPO to little over Rs 35 billion after the share sale received a sluggish response, especially from high networth individuals.

The share sale of the leading brokerage firm -- which was to raise up to Rs 40.2 billion -- received around 88% subscription, including the anchor portion.

One shall note that, first time in almost 3 years a firm will debut on the exchanges after getting less than 80% subscription.

ICICI Securities share price, opened the day below its issue price and ended the first day down 14.4% from its issue price.

Meanwhile, shares of Mishra Dhatu Nigam (MIDHANI) also listed on BSE and NSE today.

The IPO, which was oversubscribed by 1.21 times, was opened for subscription from 21 March to 23 March. The company had fixed the price band of Rs 87-90 for the public offer.

MIDHANI share price, ended its first day with no change from its issue price of Rs 90.

IPO Subscription Times (2017)

One space which tests the investor's contrarian philosophy is the IPO space. The demand for IPO's has reached sky-high levels. Avenue was the first company this year to cross the 100 time subscription mark swiftly followed by CDSL and Dixon technologies lately.

The market euphoria is something similar to what was seen in 2007-08. When everyone around you is clamoring to get a piece of the IPO pie, it makes sitting tight difficult. And, why should you sit tight when stocks like Avenue Supermart lets you pocket a cool 100% gain from day 1 of the listing?

History suggests that these cases are few and far between. More than 70% of the IPOs listed in 2007 and 2008 are in the red, even today when the Sensex is at an all-time high.

This allows us to stay on the fence when it comes to investing in IPOs. But it doesn't make sense to completely ignore this space. For every Reliance Power - like issue, there have been issues like Maruti, TCS, and Jubilant Foodworks Ltd(with returns over 4,000%, 1,000% and 500% respectively) that have created immense wealth for shareholders.

A merit-based selection primarily including valuation, business, and management quality is the logical way to go about it. If it means going against the herd, so be it. And going by recent past, this strategy has been proven to be successful more often than not.

And here's a note from Profit Hunter:

The Indian benchmark indices slipped sharply in the second half of today's session. The Nifty 50 Index plunged 115 point, while the BSE Sensex fell 350 points.

Despite this selling, Tata Motors Ltd witnessed strong buying interest. The stock is up 4% with strong volumes.

The last time we reviewed the stock, it was trading near its important zone of 423-431. The zone acted as a support and resistance several times in the past. The stock reacted from this zone and slipped to touch a new 52-week low of 324 just a few days back.

But the stock has now found a strong support from the channel's support line (green line). It bounced up nearly 9% from this support level.

So will the stock rally back to the channel's resistance line, which is placed near the horizontal resistance zone of 423-431? Let's wait and watch.

Tata Motors Rallied 4% for the Day

(Click on image to enlarge)