Top stock tips by Shrikant Chouhan, Mitessh Thakkar: ITC, Godrej Consumer, Fortis Healthcare and more

Indian equity benchmarks are likely to start Friday's session on a negative note tracking weakness across global markets. At 8:53 am, Nifty futures trading on Singapore Exchange -- an early indicator of the Nifty50 index -- were down 22 points or 0.1 percent at 17,523.5.

Equities in other Asian markets slipped amid renewed concerns about COVID-19, and as investors awaited key US inflation data that could set direction on interest rates. MSCI's broadest index of Asia Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.4 percent in early hours.

Japan's Nikkei 225 and China's Shanghai Composite were down 0.4 percent each. Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 0.3 percent, South Korea's KOSPI 0.5 percent and Singapore's Straits Times 0.1 percent.

S&P 500 futures were up 0.1 percent in Asia on Friday morning.

On Thursday, Wall Street indices fell after three straight days of gains, with focus now turning towards inflation data for clues on the Federal Reserve's policy decision. The S&P 500 fell 0.7 percent and the Nasdaq Composite 1.7 percent, and the Dow Jones ended flat.

Buy Godrej Consumer for a target of Rs 950 with a stop loss at Rs 905

Buy Granules for a target of Rs 350 with a stop loss at Rs 327

Buy ITC for a target of Rs 242 with a stop loss at Rs 230

Sell SBI Cards for a target of Rs 930-925 with a stop loss at Rs 968