Indian share markets gathered some momentum in the afternoon session to finish above the dotted line amid firm global markets. At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex closed higher by 117 points and the NSE Nifty finished up by 38 points. The S&P BSE Mid Cap finished up by 0.5% while S&P BSE Small Cap finished up by 0.1%. Gains were largely seen in realty stocks, software stocks and power stocks.

Asian stock markets finished mixed as of the most recent closing prices. The Nikkei 225 gained 1.11% as a landslide election victory for the country's ruling party set the benchmark index there on course for a record 15th session of consecutive gains. Meanwhile, the Shanghai Composite rose 0.06% and the Hang Seng lost 0.64%. European markets are higher today with shares in Germany leading the region. The DAX is up 0.40% while France's CAC 40 is up 0.19% and London's FTSE 100 is up 0.10%.

Rupee was trading at Rs 65.02 against the US$ in the afternoon session. Oil prices were trading at US$ 51.87 at the time of writing.

In news from the economy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the Indian economy is on track and is going in the right direction on back of various reforms and hard decisions. He also assured that the government will continue to take important decisions regarding the economic reforms and further noted that while initiating these measures the government would maintain financial stability of the country.

Narendra Modi further mentioned that the production of coal, natural gas, electricity and other items has increased enormously, adding that foreign investors are also making record investments in the country. He highlighted that the country's foreign exchange reserves have jumped to US$400 billion from US$300 billion.

The Prime Minister also tried to assure the traders over the Goods and Service Tax (GST), saying that their past records will not be checked by the Income Tax department if they join the formal economy by getting themselves registered under the new tax regime.

Axis Bank share price continued to slide and lost 2.5% on BSE, with the stock extending post-result slide after the private sector bank reported rise in bad loans on sequential and annual basis in Q2 September 2017.

Telecom stocks continued its good run with Idea share price and Bharti Airtel share price leading the gains.

Stocks of telecom operators were up post last week's news of Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio) increasing its tariff plans thereby, indicating a stability in the market may be around the corner.

As per an article in the ET, the development is a big positive for Airtel, Vodafone and Idea as Jio had been disrupting the market since its launch in September 2016 through first free and then rock-bottom data rates and free-for-life voice calls across the country, forcing older operators to slash rates to retain users at the cost of severe financial pressure. Now, these incumbents have some leeway to increase rates.

From Jio's perspective, the move sends the signal to customers that subsidies won't last forever. However, the hike might not end up adding substantially to revenues.

Meanwhile, Reliance Communications share price surged 6.7% after the telecom department has approved the merger of Reliance Communications and Sistema Shyam Telecom Limited (SSTL). SSTL operates the MTS brand in nine circles in India.

The deal, which is valued at Rs 50 billion, would provide RCom with 3.75 MHz of highly valuable spectrum in 850 MHZ band in various parts of the country.

In news from engineering sector, BHEL share price finished on an encouraging note (up 2%) after the company announced that the execution of 4000 MW Yadadri Supercritical Thermal Power Project has commenced with the issuance of revised letter of Intent by Telangana State Power Generation Corporation.

Significantly, valued at around Rs 204 billion, the order for Yadadri TPP, comprising five units of 800 MW super critical sets, is not only the single-largest order for BHEL but also the highest value order ever placed in the power sector in India.

The Yadadri project is expected to be a leap in quantum jump in BHEL's executable outstanding order book and will help the company to enhance its growth momentum.

Moving on to news from software sector. As per a leading financial daily, HCL Technologies has collaborated with Volvo Ocean Race as the strategic IT services provider.

The leading global IT services company has provided end-to-end infrastructure support as well as connectivity between the Race Village and the Command Centre in Alicante further connecting them to 12 Host Cities on the race route globally.

HCL has provided end-to-end infrastructure support for the sporting event that is often described as the longest and the toughest in the world.

HCL Technologies share price finished the day up by 1.7%.

Speaking of IT sector, the top 4 IT companies have underperformed the benchmark. With the sector, heavily dependent on US customers, Trump's protectionist policy announcements have further dampened the mood in this sector.

Underperformance of Top IT Stocks

Also, with automation on the horizon, Indian IT companies' low-cost labor outsourcing is turning into a thing of the past. IT companies need to re-invent itself.

Automation is needed in their traditional businesses like BPO, application management, and infrastructure management.

While near term challenges are there, current valuations of top IT companies are at multi-year lows. But is this the new normal? The challenge is to find the companies better placed than others to adapt to this structural change.