Pharmaceutical company Strides Shasun Ltd has launched a share sale to raise funds up to 15 billion rupees ($225.7 million), IFR reported on Friday, citing a source close to the transaction.

Pharmaceutical company Strides Shasun Ltd has launched a share sale to raise funds up to 15 billion rupees ($225.7 million), IFR reported on Friday, citing a source close to the transaction.

Strides is selling shares at 1,278 rupees apiece in the transaction, which comprises a base deal for 10 billion rupees with an upsize option of 5 billion rupees, IFR, a Thomson Reuters publication, said.

Axis and Jefferies are the bookrunners for the deal, it said.

Maruti Suzuki stocks will remain in focus on Friday as the car maker on Thursday post market hours announced receipt of approval from its minority shareholders to let its Japanese parent Suzuki invest and own upcoming plant in Gujarat, where a total investment of Rs 18,500 crore has been envisaged in the long term.

After four day rally, the BSE Sensex and NSE Nifty opened on a weak note on Friday following global cues. At 9.43 am, The BSE Sensex was down 30.50 points at 25,773.28. NSE Nifty was down 13.05 points at 7,831.30.

Below are the stocks that are likely to be in focus today:

Eros International Ltd: Stocks of the company were trading 2.47 per cent up at Rs 266.00 (at 9.45 am) following the release of Bollywood movie ‘Bajirao Mastani’ on Friday, for which Eros International is a distributor.

TAKE Solutions: Share price of the company was trading over 3 per cent down in early trade the IT major on Thursday post market hours said that the recent floods in Chennai will impact its revenue and margins for the quarter ended December 31, 2015.

Maruti Suzuki: Stocks of the company will remain in focus on Friday as the car maker on Thursday post market hours announced receipt of approval from its minority shareholders to let its Japanese parent Suzuki invest and own upcoming plant in Gujarat, where a total investment of Rs 18,500 crore has been envisaged in the long term.

ONGC: Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan vowed to protect government and ONGC’s interest on the issue of state-owned firm’s natural gas from Bay of Bengal block flowing to adjoining fields of Reliance Industries.

GIC Housing: GIC Housing Finance said Reliance Capital Trustee Company has bought 1.85 per cent stake, valued at over Rs 21 crore at the current market prices.

Muthoot Microfinance: The microfinance arm of the country’s second largest gold loan company Muthoot Fincorp, is talking to private equity players to raise Rs 100 crore to shore up its core capital.

HDFC: Germany’s ERGO International will buy 22.9 per cent additional stake in HDFC ERGO General Insurance for Rs 1,122 crore, becoming the latest foreign insurer to increase holding in Indian venture following relaxation of FDI norms in the sector.

Tata Power: Tata Power and renewable energy firm Gamesa India have entered into a pact for a 100 mw wind turbine project in Andhra Pradesh.

JMC Projects: Civil engineering and EPC firm JMC Projects (India) Ltd (JMC) today said that it has bagged construction projects worth over Rs 1,050 crore.

Bank of Baroda: CBI filed its charge sheet against two employees of Bank of Baroda for offences including criminal conspiracy and cheating in connection with alleged illegal remittances of over Rs 6,000 crore made to over 350 accounts in Hong Kong and Dubai from one of its branch.

Contrary to apprehensions stock markets might capitulate following an interest rate hike by the US Federal Reserve, global equity benchmarks were gainers on Thursday after the Fed raised rates by 25 basis points on Wednesday, reports fe Bureau in Mumbai.

Most Asian markets rallied more than 1% with the Shanghai Composite, Japan’s Nikkei and benchmark indices from Taiwan and Indonesia leading the charge. On Wednesday, US indices — both the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 — closed the session with gains of about 1.5%. This is the first hike in the benchmark rate in nearly 10 years.

Back home, both the 30-share Sensex and the broader Nifty clocked their biggest daily gains in nearly a month.

Foreign portfolio investors reversed their nearly month-long selling streak to buys shares worth close to $100 million. In December so far they have sold shares worth $500 million.

Traders seem to have taken a breather after the Fed chair Janet Yellen indicated the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), responsible for monetary policy, expects US economic conditions to evolve in manner that warrants only “gradual”increase in interest rates. The committee’s indication that the monetary policy stance remains “accommodative” as it looks to achieve its target inflation rate of 2% even as it recognised the strength in US economy allayed fears of steep normalisation in US interest rates which have stayed near zero (0.25%) for nearly seven years.

The privately-held power distribution companies in Delhi are relying on power banking and advanced load forecasting to ensure adequate power availability in the region during the December-February period, when the load is likely to peak to 4,600 MW.

The three distribution companies operating in Delhi supply surplus power to other states during the winter months — December to February — and receive the same capacity during summer months, May to September. This is known as power banking.

“Banking of power means the exchange of electricity for electricity. TPDDL has entered into the power banking arrangements with different states including Jammu& Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya and Odisha among others,”said Praveer Sinha, CEO, Tata Power Delhi Distribution Limited.

While Reliance Infra-run BRPL has made arrangements to reduce night surplus power by supplying 300 MW power to Kerala during night hours, its sister concern BYPL, will receive an additional 165 MW from Uttar Pradesh and Punjab (between 8 am and 1 pm) through banking from December 2015 to February 2016. This will be returned between July-September 2016.

Additionally, BRPL and BYPL have also deployed an advanced load forecasting solution to enable better demand prediction, which could help in more prudent and cost-effective power purchase agreements.

Upgrade SKS Microfinance to overweight on strong medium-term earnings visibility amid a tough environment; long-term uncertainty due to SFB license miss remains.

RBI recently doubled loan limits for shorter-tenor loans; this should drive higher loan growth and operating efficiency at SKS. Hence, while long-term uncertainty remains, due to it not receiving a small finance bank (SFB) license, we see very strong earnings growth in the near to medium term (MSe ~55% EPS CAGR F16e-18e). This, in the context of weak earnings growth in the rest of the group, should drive stock performance.

This should also help customer acquisition as SKS would be able to offer a higher amount. As a risk management policy, however, SKS’ maximum loan size is Rs 20,010 in the first cycle to a new borrower vs. its cap of Rs 29,565 on shorter-tenor (50 week) loans (per product profile on website). This should also help improve operating efficiency at SKS.

Further, SKS has seen a significant reduction in its cost of funds, owing to falling risk premia driven by improving credit rating and performance track record, as well as access to more and cheaper sources of funding such as refinancing from Mudra Bank and commercial paper. As a result, SKS has been able to lower its cost of borrowing and, hence, lending rates (a pass-through given the spread cap of 10%).