Benchmark indices are likely to open on a flat note following Asian peers, which were flat in early trade on Friday as deteriorating global economic outlook outweighs more signs of progress in trade talks between China and the United States.

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Early in the Asian trading day, MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up less than 0.1 percent. Australian shares gained 0.5 percent and Japan's Nikkei stock index was 0.3 percent lower.

Indian shares ended on a positive on Thursday led by metal, banking, and pharma stocks. The 30-share BSE Sensex gained 142.09 points to end at 35,898.35 while the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 54.40 points to close at 10,789.90.

Here are the top brokerage calls for the day:

Credit Suisse on Eicher Motors

- Maintain neutral call, target at Rs 21,800 per share

- State-wise trends do not look very encouraging

- Within domestic motorcycles companies, the company lost market share in almost all the states in Q3, with Kerala and Tamil Nadu seeing the sharpest decline

- Key state driving growth for the company has been Uttar Pradesh, but volume growth in the state has slowed down from 60% to 10%

Investec on general insurance companies

- Equity investment in the sector is attractive from a portfolio perspective

- In India, this sector as attractive given massive under penetration

- Market structure is in favour of top private players

- ICICI Lombard and Bajaj are well ahead Of the other peers With RoE more than 20 percent

- PSUs are in bad shape with only New India Assurance (NIA) standing apart

- Initiate coverage on ICICI Lombard with Buy rating and New India Assurance with Hold rating

- Target for ICICI Lombard at Rs 1,000, Bajaj Finserv at Rs 7,835 per share

- Target for New India Assurance at Rs 170 per share

Macquarie On Mahindra CIE

- Raise CY19-20 EPS estimates by 1-2 percent on strong Q4CY18

- CY19-21 EPS estimates are 6-7 percent above consensus

- Maintain outperform, target at Rs 300 per share

Macquarie on Mahanagar Gas

- Initiate coverage with neutral rating, target at Rs 800 per share

- Expect earnings to compound at 9 percent over the next five years

Citi on BHEL

- Maintain neutral call, target cut to Rs 70 from Rs 84 per share

- Revise EPS estimates downwards by 8-13 percent over FY19-21

- Management says FY19 will end with overall tendering of 15 GW of power equipment

First Published:Feb 22, 2019 7:54 AM IST