Indian stock markets continued to witness volatile trades during closing stock market hours today and ended their day on a flat note.

At the closing bell, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 19 points. Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty ended down by 2 points.

Cipla was among the top gainers today.

Eicher Motors, on the other hand, was among the top losers today.

SGX Nifty was trading at 15,102, down by 14 points, at the time of writing.

The BSE Mid Cap index ended up by 0.7%. The BSE Small Cap index ended up by 0.4%.

Sectoral indices ended on a mixed note with stocks in the auto sector, realty sector, and consumer durables sector witnessing buying interest.

Telecom stocks, on the other hand, witnessed selling pressure.

Asian stock markets ended higher today. The Nikkei ended up by 0.2% while the Shanghai Composite zoomed 1.4%. The Hang Seng ended up by 1.9%.

US stock futures are trading on a positive note with Dow Futures trading up by 95 points.

The rupee is trading at 72.87 against the US$.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX are trading flat at Rs 47,932 per 10 grams.

In news from the oil & gas sector...

India's fuel consumption in January registered its first month-on-month decline in five months, as an uptick in global oil prices posed a roadblock to a gradual recovery in demand from the world's third-largest oil consumer.

Consumption of fuel, a proxy for oil demand, fell to 18.01 million tonnes in January, which was 3.2% below last month, and 3.9% lower than a year earlier.

Diesel consumption, a key parameter linked to economic growth and which accounts for about 40% of overall refined fuel sales in Asia's third largest economy, declined 2.3% YoY to 6.80 million tonnes.

Sales of gasoline, or petrol, rose by about 6.1% from a year earlier to 2.61 million tonnes.

Sales of cooking gas, or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), increased by about 2% to 2.49 million tonnes, while naphtha sales fell by 10.6% to 1.27 million tonnes.

Sales of bitumen, used for making roads, were 2.9% lower than a year ago, while fuel oil dropped by about 10% last month.

How this trend pans out in the coming months remains to be seen. Meanwhile, we will keep you updated on all the developments from this space.

Moving on to stock-specific news...

Page Industries was among the top buzzing stocks today.

Page Industry's share price jumped to the highest in more than two years after the maker of Jockey underwear and Speedo swimwear reported record profit in the third quarter.

The company's net profit rose 77% year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 1.5 billion in the October-December period (Q3FY21).

Its revenue increased 17% YoY to Rs 9.2 billion, while the operating profit jumped 63% YoY to Rs 2.6 billion.

The company, according to the filing, has repaid all outstanding debt during the quarter and is now debt-free.

Liquidity in the form of cash and cash equivalents rose to Rs 4.9 billion, a growth of 23% sequentially and 275% YoY.

The gross margin for Q3FY21 stood at 40.7% compared with 38.2% a year ago.

Berger Paints' share price was also in focus today.

The paint maker reported a 51.2% jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 2.7 billion for the quarter ended December 2020. It had posted a net profit of Rs 1.8 billion in the October-December quarter a year ago.

Revenue from operations of the company stood at Rs 21.1 billion, up 25%, during the quarter under review as against Rs 16.9 billion in the corresponding period of the last fiscal.

Market participants were also tracking Titan's share price today as the company has expanded its portfolio within the wearable category by launching its new smart fitness gear brand TraQ.

TRAQ is the first-ever smart gear developed entirely by Titan and conceptualized in-house at the design studio in Bengaluru, the company said in a statement.

Titan is eyeing the growing market in the fitness gear segment as the number of people taking up sports like running, cycling, swimming, and aiming for a healthy and active lifestyle is on rising.

Speaking of the country's largest watchmaker, here's an interesting data on Titan...

Even a tiny investment of Rs 1,000 per month in the stock of Titan, since 2002, would have led to mouthwatering returns.

Take a look at how the power of compounding has gone wild here...