Market Ahead, July 3: All you need to know before the opening bell

The SGX Nifty is indicating an open at around 10,590 levels for the Nifty today. Investors will track global cues, Covid-19 newsflow, macro data, and stock-specific developments. On Wall Street, indices closed higher, buoyed by a strong US jobs data. The Dow Jones rose 0.36 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 0.45 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.52 per cent.

Asian stocks early Friday tracked Wall Street's gains. Japan’s Nikkei rose 0.45 per cent and Australia’s ASX 200 climbed 0.88 per cent. Brent crude futures were last trading at $42.91 a barrel. The OPEC's basket oil price yesterday rose above $40/bbl for the first time in four months, reflecting higher official selling prices, according to the group's data.

Meanwhile, with the surge of nearly 22,000 new cases in the last 24 hours, India's total tally of cases has reached 6.27 lakh, of which 18,225 are fatalities. 

On the results front, a total of 18 companies including Indiabulls Housing Finance are scheduled to announce their results today. Apart from this, market participants will also track the Services PMI data to be released later in the day.

And now, a quick look at some other top news.

Global investment firm KKR will pick up a controlling stake of 54 per cent in JB Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals. As part of the deal, KKR will acquire stake from the founding Mody family at Rs 745 per share. The deal size is estimated to be around $500 million.

Care Ratings yesterday revised India's GDP growth forecast for the current financial year to (-) 6.4 per cent. It said given that the nation is into a lockdown for July too with several restrictions on resumption of services in particular as well as movement of people, the cutoff date for normalcy will spread into the latter part of the third quarter and more likely to the fourth quarter.

Sources have told Business Standard that Singapore-based equity player Clermont Group is in talks with Lakshmi Vilas Bank to pick up a 15-20 per cent stake in the bank with an investment of $150-200 million.

Anil Agarwal-led Vedanta has been removed from all indices compiled by the NSE ahead of its possible delisting. The stock will be replaced by HDFC Life Insurance Company in Nifty50 index with effect from July 31. It will be replaced by SBI Cards in the Nifty 100 and Nifty 500 indices.

Rating agency Crisil in a recent report has said that bank credit growth is likely to nosedive to a multi-decadal low of 0-1 per cent in 2020-21 as economic activity is sharply impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

Read by Kanishka Gupta