Market drifts lower in early trade

Key indices are trading lower in early trade. At 9:25 IST, the barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, was down 93.58 points or 0.2% at 46,796.76. The Nifty 50 index was down 7.20 points or 0.05% at 13,733.50. Asian stocks are trading mixed.

The S&P BSE Mid-Cap index was off 0.42%. The S&P BSE Small-Cap index was down 0.51%.

The market breadth, indicating the overall health of the market, is weak. On the BSE, 802 shares rose and 1257 shares fell. A total of 82 shares were unchanged.

Stocks in news:

Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEE) declined 0.27%. ZEE said that the board of directors of the company has approved the acquisition of film production and distribution business as a going concern, on a slump sale basis from Zee Studios (formerly known as Essel Vision Productions), a wholly owned subsidiary of the company, for a cash consideration. Also the board of directors of the company considered and approved the transfer of the Digital Publishing Business Division of the company to Rapidcube Technologies through a Business Transfer Agreement.

BPCL fell 0.15%. BPCL said its board of directors has accorded its 'in principle' approval for merger of Bharat Gas Resources (a wholly owned subsidiary of BPCL) with BPCL. BGRL is engaged in the business of Natural Gas.

Separately, the board of directors of the company has accorded its approval for acquisition of 888,613,336 (36.62%) of equity shares in Bharat Oman Refineries (BORL) from OQ S.A.O.C. (formerly known as Oman Oil Company S.A.O.C).

Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders fell 0.51%. Mazagon Dock Shipbuilders informed that the Basin Trials (BT) of the first Ship of Project 15B (Yard 12704, Vishakhapatnam) was successfully completed at MDL, in the presence of Overseeing and Trials teams of the Indian Navy. The Ship is slated to complete sea trials by April 2021.

Isgec Heavy Engineering jumped 3.96%. Isgec Heavy Engineering has secured a new order from KPR Sugar & Apparels to set up a 10,000 TCD Sulphurless Sugar Plant, 40 MW CoGeneration Plant, 60 TPH Incineration Boiler and 7.5 MW Power Plant for Zero Liquid Discharge system for client's distillery plant on EPC basis. The order is valued at Rs 431 crore.

Global Markets:

Overseas, Asian stocks are trading mixed on Friday as investors looked ahead to the Bank of Japan's rate decision and monetary policy statement expected later in the day.

In US, stocks closed at record levels on Thursday, boosted by hope of Washington coming through on additional fiscal aid before the end of 2020.

Congressional negotiators in Washington were scrambling on Thursday to agree on details of a $900 billion COVID-19 aid bill. Lawmakers from both parties said failing to agree was not an option. Earlier Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said talks could spill into the weekend.

However, Britain and the European Union struck a pessimistic tone in trade talks on Thursday, with a spokesman for Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying it was very likely there would be no agreement unless the bloc changed its position substantially.

Back home, domestic equity benchmarks came off record high levels in late trade and ended with decent gains on Thursday. The barometer index, the S&P BSE Sensex, added 223.88 points or 0.48% to 46,890.34. The Nifty 50 index advanced 58 points or 0.42% to 13,740.70.

Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) bought shares worth Rs 2,355.25 crore, while domestic institutional investors (DIIs), were net sellers to the tune of Rs 2,494.36 crore in the Indian equity market on 17 December, provisional data showed.

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