A bearish trend is likely to continue for Indian markets in early trade on Friday. The SGX Nifty is currently hovering around 15,065, down about 50 points, as against the Nifty futures close of 15,116 on the NSE on Thursday. Most markets in the Asia-Pacific region such as Japan, Australia, Korea, China, Hong Kong and Vietnam fell in the range of 0.5-1.5 per cent.

The focus will be on PSU stocks, which of late have been on demand, said analysts.

The market remained in the mood for consolidation for the third day, impacted by negative cues from Asian markets. Globally, markets show weakness due to spike in US bond yield while improving corporate earnings and continued inflow of foreign funds is providing support to the domestic market, said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services.

Stocks to Watch

Oil India Limited (OIL) in consortium with Engineers India Limited (EIL) has decided to bid for acquiring 61.65 per cent stake of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) in Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL). The bid is to be submitted through a formal process. The exact percentage of the stake of OIL and EIL will depend on the extent of Right of First Offer (ROFO) to be exercised by Government of Assam which already holds 12.35 per cent stake in NRL. NRL is the largest customer of OIL's crude produced from its North Eastern fields. The acquisition is expected to improve the synergy in OIL's portfolio.

The Board of Directors of IDFC FIRST Bank Limited has approved raising of funds for an amount aggregating up to ₹3,000 crore. The fund raising would be in one or more tranches, by way of issuance of Securities, through one or more permissible mode(s), including but not limited to a Private Placement, Qualified Institutions Placement, Follow-on Public Offering or a combination thereof, subject to shareholders' approval.

Arvind Fashions Ltd has fixed February 24, 2021 as the record date for the purpose of determining names of the shareholders of the Company eligible to apply for the Equity Shares in the proposed Rights Issue of the Company. The board of Arvind Fashions earlier approved the issue of 1.48 crore partly paid-up equity shares face value of ₹4 each at an issue price of ₹135 a share for about ₹200 crore.

Shilpa Medicare: The company has received an Import Alert 66-40, pursuant to the USFDA inspection of the Unit IV, Jadcherla, Telangana facility from February 13-20 and February 24-25, 2020.

Continental Petroleums : The board of directors will meet on February 24 to transact and consider the proposal to avail additional credit facility up to a principal sum of ₹5 crore from HDFC Bank on the terms and conditions as may be mentioned in the sanction letter.

Results corner : Asian Tea & Exports, Binani Industries, Chromatic India, : Mahindra CIE Automotive, Sunedison Infrastructure, Uniply Decor and Uniworth Securities will announce their quarterly earnings on February 19.

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