With 309 new cases of highly transmissible Covid variant Omicron detected in the last 24 hours, India's Omicron tally on Friday rose to 1,270 cases. Of total, 374 have been discharged.

Among the 23 states and UTs that have reported the Omicron infection so far, Maharashtra tops the list with 450 cases of this variant. Of them, 125 patients have been discharged as per the health ministry data.

Gold was set for its worst year since 2015 on Friday as a global economic recovery caused safe-haven flows into the metal to ease and as central banks prepared to raise interest rates to contain inflation.

Spot gold rose 0.1% in thin trading to $1,817.57 per ounce by 0846 GMT, hovering close to a one-month high. U.S. gold futures rose 0.3% to $1,818.90.

Responsive Industries has witnessed a phenomenal rally in the last three trading sessions after the company announced its quarterly and half-yearly numbers for the period ended September 2021 on December 28, 2021.

The stock has zoomed a whopping 65.1 per cent from levels of Rs 106.85 (closing price on December 28) to an intraday high of Rs 176.50 today.

Sri Lanka will sign a deal with Lanka Indian Oil Corporation (LIOC) to restore 75 oil tanks as the country moves to secure a $500 million fuel credit line from India, its energy minister said on Friday.

The island nation is facing dwindling foreign exchange reserves and has nearly $4.5 billion worth of debt repayments in 2022, prompting it to look at innovative ways to bring in foreign exchange.

Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd (RNESL), an arm of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 100 per cent stake in UK-based Faradion Limited for an enterprise value of GBP 100 million.

With its patented sodium-ion battery technology, Faradion is one of the leading global battery technology companies and has a competitively superior, strategic, wide-reaching and extensive IP portfolio covering several aspects of sodium-ion technology, said RNESL in a press release on Friday.

Global dealmaking is set to maintain its scorching pace next year, after a historic year for merger and acquisition (M&A) activity that was fueled largely by easy availability of cheap financing and booming stock markets.

Global M&A volumes topped $5 trillion for the first time ever, comfortably eclipsing the previous record of $4.55 trillion set in 2007, Dealogic data showed. The overall value of M&A stood at $5.8 trillion in 2021, up 64% from a year earlier, according to Refinitiv.

IT services major Tech Mahindra announced the acquisition of 100 per cent stake in Allyis India and Green Investments for $125 million in an all cash deal.

The target entity is Allyis India Pvt Ltd and Green Investments LLC, holding company for Allyis Group (together called as Target). Target is headquartered in Seattle, US, and has more than 660 employees. For the financial year ending December 31, 2020, Target reported a revenue of $39.6 million.

CMS Info Systems debuted on a mildly positive note in an otherwise firm market. The stock was listed at Rs 218.50 on the BSE - a 1.2 per cent premium to its issue price of Rs 216 per share.

As of 10:07 am, the stock had hit a high of Rs 226.60, and a low of Rs 215.55 on the BSE. The stock quoted almost flat at Rs 216.70 with volumes of around 5.75 lakh shares. Meanwhile, the BSE benchmark index, the Sensex was up 0.7 per cent at 58,224.

Indigo Paints zoomed 15.7 per cent to a high of Rs 2,247 in intraday trades on the BSE on Friday on the back renewed buying interest at the counter.

The stock had recently hit a fresh 52-week low of Rs 1,900 on December 27, 2021, and was down a whopping 43.2 per cent from its 52-week high of Rs 3,348 touched on February 03, 2021.

Foreign automakers have indicated an interest to the government of India's Tamil Nadu state in acquiring Ford Motor Co's plant there, the state industries minister said on Thursday, after inconclusive talks with the Tata Group.

Ford India said in September it would wind down operations at a factory in Western Gujarat state by end-2021 and vehicle and engine manufacturing at the Tamil Nadu plant by 2022, as it did not see a path to profitability in the country.

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