MUMBAI: Indian markets are likely to be choppy on Friday, with trends SGX Nifty futures suggesting a negative start for domestic benchmark indices. On Thursday, the BSE Sensex rose 113 points to end the day at 57,901, while the Nifty50 climbed 27 points to 17,248

Asian stock markets and the US dollar struggled for traction on Friday after a rush of central bank meetings underlined the growing threat posed by a spike in global inflation, while fears about the omicron variant of covid-19 added to a cautious mood.

The dollar index was trading at 95.999, off nearly 1% since Wednesday's high immediately after the Federal Reserve announced it would accelerate tapering of its emergency bond buying programme and prepare to raise rates more quickly next year.

The yield on benchmark 10-year Treasury notes , was at 1.4275%, the lower end of their recent range, while the two-year yield , was at 0.6330% also having rolled off its recent highs.

Back home, Vodafone Idea Ltd is in talks with banks to either refinance a portion of its loans or raise fresh debt to repay bondholders.

NTPC on Thursday said it will raise Rs1,175 crore on December 20, 2021 through issuance of unsecured non-convertible debentures (NCDs) on private placement basis.

Food company Britannia Industries has revamped its largest selling biscuit brand Good Day and as part of that, revealed its new identity. Besides, Britannia is also expanding the product portfolio of its most-penetrated brand Good Day by adding three more variants in the premium segment, said its Managing Director Varun Berry. Britannia will launch Good Day Harmony and two other variants in the premium segment, which is growing fast after the pandemic.

RateGain Travel Technologies will make its stock markets debut today.

Meanwhile, the US Fed was the centrepiece of a busy week for central bank policy makers, many of which took a more hawkish turn.

Also hurting the dollar were gains in the pound , which rose 0.45% on Thursday after the Bank of England surprised markets by becoming the first major global central bank to raise interest rates - hiking by 0.15 percentage points to 0.25%.

The euro firmed after the European Central Bank took another small step to roll back crisi-era stimulus.

The Bank of Japan will wrap up a bumper week for major central banks later on Friday. It is set to keep monetary policy ultra-loose but may dial back emergency pandemic-funding.

Share markets have failed to find a clear direction since the Fed meeting. Overnight the Nasdaq ended sharply lower as investors moved away from growth stocks like big tech and towards value names, pushing the S&P 500 value index up 0.7%.

Japan's Nikkei was 0.85% lower in early trading on Friday after rising 2.13% the day before in its best day in nearly seven weeks.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan lost 0.2%. It is heading for a weekly decline of 1.7%, and at 621.93 is only just above the year low of 615.99 set last week.

The US government put investment and export restrictions on dozens of Chinese companies on Thursday, including top drone maker DJI, accusing them of complicity in the oppression of China's Uyghur minority or helping the military, further ratcheting up tensions between the world's top two economies.

Oil prices slid in early Friday trading after rising 2% the day before. Brent crude falling 0.6% to $71.94 a barrel and U.S. crude losing 0.6% to $71.94 a barrel.