The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved UltraTech Cement's proposal to acquire a majority stake in India Cements, allowing UltraTech to expand its footprint in the southern cement market. The deal involves UltraTech acquiring 32.72% of India Cements' equity share capital and making an open offer to acquire up to 26% more.

Gold prices extended gains on Friday, supported by a softer dollar and Treasury yields after U.S. economic data indicated a slowdown in inflation, although the Federal Reserve's hawkish interest rate outlook kept bullion on track for a weekly loss. Spot gold was up 1.2% at $2,624.15 per ounce, as of 01:41 p.m. ET (1841 GMT) and U.S. gold futures settled 1.4% up at $2,645.10.

📌Shree Renuka Sugars: Buy at ₹38.70, target ₹43.80, stop loss ₹36.30 📌Fedders Holding: Buy at ₹76, target ₹80.50, stop loss ₹74. 📌AMJ Land Holdings: Buy at ₹70.30, target ₹100, stop loss ₹60; 📌VIP Clothing: Buy at ₹45.50, target ₹70, stop loss ₹40. 📌Network 18: Buy at ₹73 to ₹74.50, target ₹75, ₹78 and ₹80, stop loss ₹71.80;

Maharashtra's Ready Reckoner rates are likely to become more realistic as the state completes GIS mapping of land parcels, providing accurate data for assessing RR rates, which have remained unchanged since 2022. Maharashtra Remote Sensing Application Centre has completed GIS mapping of rural areas and 50% of urban regions.

Siemens' comments on lacking private capex traction in India led to a sharp decline in capital goods stocks, with Siemens shares plunging 10% and ABB India shares falling 6%. Despite this, analysts remain optimistic about the Indian capex cycle, expecting private-sector capex to intensify and drive earnings growth starting Q4 FY25.

Nearly 83% of FPI flows in the first fortnight of Dec were concentrated in three sectors - financial services, IT, and real estate. Overseas investors poured ₹7,424 crore into financial services, ₹6,754 crore into IT, and ₹4,689 crore into real estate stocks in this period. These investors sold ₹5,337 crore worth of oil & gas stocks, ₹1,823 crore in auto stocks, and ₹1,655 crore in FMCG shares.

Investors scrutinise their returns from different assets. It will be interesting for such investors to know that gold prices have outperformed Indian stock market benchmarks, with a 21% increase in MCX gold rate and a 27% surge in spot gold price, driven by factors like 📌US Fed rate cuts, 📌geopolitical tensions, and 📌central banks' gold buying, 📌making gold a hedge against inflation.

The MCG enforcement team has imposed a Rs 5 lakh fine on a builder in Sector 113 for violating the construction ban under GRAP-4, and also issued a Rs 5,000 fine to a motorcycle service centre in Wazirabad for littering. The corporation teams are taking action against those who have not stopped construction activities despite the ban.

U.S. stocks rallied to close out the trading week on Friday after two lackluster sessions as a cooler-than-expected inflation report and comments from Federal Reserve officials eased worries about the path of interest rates. The latest inflation report in the form of the Personal Consumption Expenditure (PCE) index showed a 2.4% rise in November on an annual basis.

The Indian markets erased all the last four weeks gains and posted biggest weekly fall in more than 2 years. The benchmark indices ended in red for all the trading sessions of the week amid global sell-off post US Fed cautious stance on the pace of future rate cuts, which led to huge FIIs selling. This week, BSE Sensex shed 4,091.53 points or 4.98 percent to close at 78,041.59.

Gold Rate and Silver Price Today on December 21, 2024: Gold prices experienced a modest decrease on Saturday. The cost of 24 carat gold in India is Rs.7696.3 per gram, reflecting an decrease of ₹ 330.0. The cost of 22 carat gold in India is 7056.3 per gram, a fall of ₹300.0.The price fluctuation of 24 carat gold over the past week is recorded at 0.08%.

Indian equity markets plummeted, erasing four weeks of gains, with the Sensex falling nearly 5%, while 22 smallcaps delivered double-digit returns, led by Fairchem Organics with 49% returns. Only General Insurance Corp rose in double digits in the midcap segment, and Sun Pharma was the least affected among Sensex stocks.

With December so far delivering Scrooge-like returns in an otherwise stellar year for U.S. stocks, investors hope the tail end of 2024 offers some holiday cheer, but warn of potential headwinds. The benchmark S&P 500 is up more than 23% for 2024, even after a major stumble this week, and Wall Street has historically often enjoyed a strong annual close.

Oil prices settled little changed on Friday as markets weighed Chinese demand and interest rate-cut expectations after data showed cooling U.S. inflation. Brent crude futures closed up 6 cents, or 0.08%, at $72.94 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures rose 8 cents, or 0.12%, at $69.46 per barrel. Both benchmarks ended the week down about 2.5%.

Indian Oil Corporation's board has approved a ₹4,382.21 crore joint venture with MCPI Private Ltd to set up a yarn project in Odisha, with Indian Oil's equity contribution amounting to ₹657.33 crore. The project includes a 900 TPD continuous polymerization unit and downstream units for various yarn products.