Market Ahead, May 5: All You Need To Know Before The Opening Bell

After plunging nearly 6 per cent yesterday, the Indian equity markets look set for a mild recovery today, largely on the back of positive global cues. The SGX Nifty is up around 120 points, so the Nifty may open somewhere around the 9,350 levels.

According to analysts, the Nifty is making a higher top and higher bottom formation on the daily chart. After yesterday's fall, the Nifty reached near its previous swing low placed at 9,150, hence, as long as the Nifty holds above this level, traders can expect another pullback on the higher side.

For today's session, investors will track global cues, coronavirus newsflow, and foreign fund flow. They will also await any development on the stimulus package front. Besides, corporate results will lead to stock-specific moves.

Wall Street rebounded in overnight trade as the lifting of lockdowns in some US states boosted optimism. The Dow Jones rose 0.1 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 0.4 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite added 1.2 per cent.

Asian stocks also inched higher in early deals. Australia's ASX 200 gained 1.3 per cent and the Hang Seng index was up half a per cent. In commodities, oil prices jumped higher. Brent crude was last up 4 per cent at $28.32 a barrel. 

The total number of coronavirus cases in India surged to 46,437 with 1,566 deaths, according to data compiled by Worldometer. Globally, 36.3 lakh people have been infected by the novel coronavirus so far, and the total number of deaths from the disease exceeds 2.5 lakh.

On the results front, Marico reported a 50.6 per cent drop in its Q4 profit to Rs 199 crore while revenue dipped 7 per cent on a year-on-year basis. Today, a total of nine companies including Adani Ports, SBI Life Insurance and Rallis India are scheduled to announce their March quarter earnings.

Now, let's look at the other top news of the day.

With further extension of the nationwide lockdown, the RBI is considering a proposal for extending the moratorium on bank loans by another three months.

There's a report in Bloomberg today on India's fiscal deficit which says that India’s budget gap for the year ended March 31 has touched 4.4 per cent of the GDP, thus breaching the target of 3.8 per cent gap set in February due to reduced tax collections.

Meanwhile, rating agency Icra has further cut its projections for India's economic growth rate. It now sees 16 to 20 per cent contraction in India's growth in the first quarter of the current financial year from its earlier estimate of -10 per cent to -15 per cent.

Read by: Kanishka Gupta