India equity markets are likely to open lower on Friday amid mixed global cues. Early trends on SGX Nifty hinted at a negative start for benchmark indices BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty 50. Nifty futures were trading 45.5 points, or 0.25% lower at 17,958.5 on the Singapore Exchange, ahead of today’s session. “The earnings season is over but festive season is about to begin which is expected to be normal after two years. This should auger well for consumption oriented sectors and should keep the overall momentum positive in the market,” 

Stocks in focus on 19 August, Friday

Oil refineries and producers: Reliance Industries, ONGC and Vedanta stocks will be in focus as the government on Thursday hiked the windfall profit tax on the export of diesel to Rs 7 per litre and brought back a tax on jet fuel exports, but slashed the levy on domestically produced crude oil in line with softening rates.

Sona BLW Precision Forgings: Government of Singapore, SBI Mutual Fund have picked 2% stake in Sona BLW Precision Forgings. Government of Singapore acquired 30,68,730 equity shares in the company, while SBI Mutual Fund bought 87 lakh shares via open market transactions on Thursday. However, Singapore VII Topco III Pte Ltd, an affiliate of private equity firm Blackstone, sold 7,94,33,500 equity shares (13.6% stake) in the company at an average price of Rs 509.10 per share. Canadian insurance firm Manulife Financial Corporation also bought shares through a block deal. Nippon India Mutual Fund, Kotak Mutual Fund and HDFC Mutual Fund were among others who bought the stake.

Wipro: The IT services provider has received a multi-year contract to deliver Service integration and management (SIAM) services to HM Treasury (HMT). Wipro and HMT will collaborate to enable end-to-end SIAM services, from strategy, design, and implementation to running business-as-usual services such as day-to-day coordination of service integration across HMT’s vendors.

JSW Steel, JSW Ispat: Fair trade regulator Competition Commission of India (CCI) approved the proposal to merge Creixent Special Steels and JSW Ispat into JSW Steel. In May, JSW Steel announced the merger deal.

Max Healthcare Institute: HDFC Asset Management Company (AMC) has bought 0.4% equity stake in the company via open market transactions on August 16. With this, its shareholding in the company stands increased to 5.18%, up from 4.78?rlier.

Tata Power: Tata Power arm Tata Power Renewable Energy on Thursday said it raised around Rs 2,000 crore by issuing 8.36 crore equity shares to BlackRock-backed GreenForest New Energies Bidco, according to a regulatory filing. Earlier in April this year, BlackRock Real Assets-led consortium, including Mubadala Investment Company, had inked a binding agreement with Tata Power to invest Rs 4,000 crore by way of equity/compulsorily convertible instruments for a 10.53 per cent stake in Tata Power Renewables Energy Ltd, translating to a base equity valuation of Rs 34,000 crore.