Indian share markets continued to trade rangebound in the afternoon session amid weak global markets. At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 9 points, while the NSE Nifty finished down by 9 points. Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Mid Cap finished flat & the S&P BSE Small Cap finished up by 0.3%. Gains were largely seen in realty stocks, pharma stocks, and energy stocks. While, software stocks and automobile stocks finished in red.

Bharat Forge share price rose 0.8% after the company’s subsidiary signed pact with Israel’s Aerospace Industries to build new maintenance center in India for selected advanced air defence systems. The two companies have also agreed on expanding their joint operations for development, manufacturing and marketing of precise ammunition systems.

Asian stock markets finished mixed as of the most recent closing prices. The Shanghai Composite gained 0.17%, while the Hang Seng & the Nikkei 225 fell 0.49% and 0.32% respectively. European markets are lower today with shares in France off the most. The CAC 40 is down 0.35% while Germany’s DAX is off 0.22% and London’s FTSE 100 is lower by 0.18%.

The rupee was trading at Rs 64.73 against the US$ in the afternoon session. Oil prices were trading at US$ 44.38 at the time of writing.

In news from IPO space, amidst a strong initial public offer (IPO) pipeline along with a favourable capital markets environment, the IPO financing market is expected to remain buoyant during the current financial year 2017-18.

According to the credit rating agency, ICRA’s latest report, the present, average size of the IPO financing market which is around Rs 175 billion to Rs 225 billion per issuance, could rise to Rs 650 to 700 billion for issuances which are a large as well as with higher investor interest.

The credit rating agency further said that in the previous financial year, the IPO financing market remained vibrant on surge in high net worth individual (HNI) interest in IPOs to take benefit on the listing gains. The median subscription level for the non-institutional investor, which include HNI investors, category stood at 80 times for the IPOs in FY17, as against 2 times for FY16.