Indian share markets ended deep in the red on Friday.

Benchmark indices slipped nearly 3% on the back of a global sell-off following the emergence of new variant of Coivd-19.

At the closing bell on Friday, the BSE Sensex stood lower by 1,687 points (down 2.9%).

Meanwhile, the NSE Nifty closed lower by 510 points (down 2.9%).

Cipla and Dr. Reddy's Lab were among the top gainers.

JSW Steel and Tata Motors, on the other hand, were among the top losers.

The BSE Mid Cap index and the BSE Small Cap index ended down by 3.2% and 2.6%, respectively.

On the sectoral front, realty, metal and auto stocks were among the hardest hit.

Shares of Escorts Limited and KEI Industries hit their respective 52-week highs.

At 8:10 am today, the SGX Nifty was trading up by 148 points, or 1% higher at 17,180 levels. Indian share markets are headed for a gap-up opening today following the trend on SGX Nifty.

Gold prices for the latest contract on MCX were trading up by 1.4% at Rs 48,089 per 10 grams at the time of closing stock market hours on Friday.

Why Indian Stock Markets Plunged on Friday

Fresh covid worries: The World Health Organisation (WHO) has flagged a new variant of virus, which is heavily mutated, in South Africa.

It is expected to convene an emergency meeting to discuss the rapidly spreading strain, which could make vaccines less effective. The WHO said it is 'closely monitoring' the reported coronavirus variant and will determine if it should be designated a variant of 'interest' or of 'concern' in the technical meeting on Friday.

Weak global cues: The surge in coronavirus cases in Europe once again threatened to disrupt trade and travel, which spooked investors and dragged Asian markets lower on Friday.

While the Japanese Nikkei 225 was down 800 points or 2.7%, the Hang Seng was down over 550 points or 2.2%. The Shanghai Composite Index lost 0.6%.

More lockdowns: European countries expanded covid-19 booster vaccinations and tightened curbs overnight.

Slovakia announced a two-week lockdown, the Czech government will shut bars early and Germany crossed the threshold of 1 lakh covid-19-related deaths.

FIIs continue to sell: As covid risks rise and the dollar continues to strengthen, foreign investors are moving their money back to the safe haven market of the US.

On 25 November, FIIs net sold Rs 23 bn in the Indian equity cash market, taking the total so far in November to over Rs 253 bn.

In the last four sessions alone, FIIs have sold shares worth Rs 150 bn.

Moreover, the annual rate of inflation in the US hit 6.2% in October, the highest in more than three decades, as measured by the consumer price index, which gave rise to expectations of faster rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve.

Financial, realty and metal stocks under pressure: The Nifty Metal index was down 5%, with all the components in the red.

Financials, which make up for the highest weightage on the Nifty, also saw heavy selling, with the Nifty Bank index trading 3.6% lower on Friday.

While, the BSE Realty Index witnessed heavy selling pressure and ended down by 6.4%.

Oil on the boil: Crude oil prices slid more than 1% on concerns that a global supply surplus could swell in the first quarter following a coordinated release of crude reserves among major consumers, led by the US.

Top Stocks in Focus Today

Among the buzzing stocks today will be Tata Group stocks.

India's Tata group is in talks with three states to invest up to US$300 m to set up a semiconductor assembly and test unit, two sources familiar with the matter said, as part of the conglomerate's push into high-tech manufacturing.

Tata is talking to the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana and scouting for land for the outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) plant.

While Tata has previously said it would likely enter the semiconductor business, this is the first time news about the group's foray into the sector and its scale has been reported.

An OSAT plant packages, assembles and tests foundry-made silicon wafers, turning them into finished semiconductor chips.

Tata has looked at some potential locations for the factory.

Tata's push will bolster Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Make in India' drive for electronics manufacturing, which has already helped turn the South Asian nation into the world's second-biggest maker of smartphones.

Potential clients of Tata's OSAT business include companies such as Intel, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and STMicroelectronics.

The factory is expected to start operations late next year and could employ up to 4,000 workers.

IEX share price will also be in focus today.

The Indian Energy Exchange (IEX) has received shareholders' approval for the issue of bonus shares and increase in authorised share capital.

In a regulatory filing the company said the shareholders of the company have approved the resolutions as contained in the notice by requisite majority on 25 November 2021, through remote e-voting postal ballot process as set out in the postal ballot notice.

On 21 October 2021 the board of the company had approved an issue of bonus shares wherein shareholders will get two bonus shares for every one share held by them.

The bonus shares will be issued to eligible members of the company in the proportion of two new fully paid-up equity share of rupee one each for every one existing fully paid-up equity shares of rupee one each held by them, by capitalising a sum not exceeding Rs 599 m out of the company's free reserves and capital redemption reserve as on 31 March 2021.

The company has also received shareholders' approval to increase the authorised share capital and consequent alteration in the capital clause of the memorandum of association.

Tarsons Products Shares Make Lukewarm Debut

Life sciences company Tarsons Products saw a tepid debut on the bourses as the stock was listed with a 5.7% premium on Friday. This is the 52nd company to list on the mainboard in 2021.

Tarsons Products stock opened at Rs 700 on the BSE, while the opening price on the NSE was Rs 682.

The labware products maker's maiden public offer had a strong subscription of 77.49 times. Non-institutional investors had bought shares 184.58 times the portion set aside for them and qualified institutional investors put in bids 115.77 times their quota.

The portion set aside for retail investors was booked 10.56 times and that of employees was subscribed 1.83 times.

The company mobilised Rs 10.2 bn through its public offer that was composed of a fresh issue of Rs 1.5 bn and an offer for sale (OFS) of Rs 8.7 bn by promoters, and investor Clear Vision Investment Holdings.

The fresh issue proceeds after issue expenses will be utilised for repaying debts and capital expenditure for the new manufacturing facility at Panchla, West Bengal. The offer had a price band of Rs 635-662 per equity share.

Global Investors Queue Up for LIC IPO Anchor Book

Global investors are said to have held preliminary discussions regarding anchor book allocations in the proposed initial public offering (IPO) of Life Insurance Corp (LIC).

These investors include Blackstone, BlackRock, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Govt of Singapore Investment Corp and Capital International, among others.

The 10 investment banks managing the issue are reaching out to as many as 100 top global fund managers, sovereign and pension money managers and private equity funds.

Reports suggest that the share sale will likely value the insurance giant at around US$110 bn.

All being said, the finance ministry is yet to take a final decision on the IPO timeline. The IPO is expected in the March 2022 quarter.

Earlier this month, DIPAM secretary Tuhin Kanta said,

• On LIC IPO, we are working very hard. For the capital market, it will be a very big event in the first quarter of 2022.

The government is looking to offload up to 10% of its stake through the IPO as well as primary issuance of new shares for expansion of the insurer.

Starting with an initial capital of Rs 50 m in 1956, LIC's asset base crossed Rs 38 lakh crore with total investments of Rs 36.8 lakh crore and a life fund of Rs 34.4 lakh crore at the end of March 2021, it said two months ago.

How LIC's IPO sails through remains to be seen.