At 08:43 am, Nifty futures on the Singapore Exchange (SGX) were trading 121 points or over 1 per cent higher at 10,688.80, indicating a positive start for the Indian market on Monday.

Here’s a look at the top stocks that may remain in focus today –

HDFC Bank: The bank’s advances expanded by 21 per cent year on year to approximately Rs 1,004,500 crore, as of June 30. The outstanding loans stood at Rs 829,700 crore as of June 30, 2019, and Rs 993,700 crore as of March 31, 2020. READ MORE

Bajaj Auto: Workers at Bajaj Auto, India’s biggest exporter of motorbikes, are demanding the temporary closure of one of its plants after 250 employees there tested positive for coronavirus, its unions said on Saturday, as companies struggle to ramp up operations.

ICICI Bank: ICICI

Members of an NGO were allegedly assaulted by residents of Rani Bagh in northwest Delhi while they were catching stray dogs in the area, police said on Saturday.

Four members of ‘Neighbourhood Woof, including a woman, had come to the area to catch stray dogs on Friday night when a heated argument broke out between them and the locals, leading to a scuffle, they said.

Three persons sustained minor injuries after being hit by the car of the NGO members while they were trying to leave the area, police said.

The four NGO members and the three residents of Rani Bagh were taken to separate hospitals for medical examination, they said.

A case was registered under sections 323(punishment for voluntarily causing hurt) , 341 (punishment for wrongful restraint), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation)and 427 of the IPC

The European Commission on Friday authorised anti-viral drug remdesivir for treatment against coronavirus, making it the first drug authorised at the European Union-level for the treatment of Covid-19.

“Today, the European Commission granted a conditional marketing authorisation for the medicine remdesivir,” the European Commission said in a press release, Xinhua reported.

Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said: “Today’s authorisation of a first medicine to treat Covid-19 is an important step forward in the fight against this virus… We will leave no stone unturned in our efforts to secure efficient treatments or vaccine against the coronavirus.“

ALSO READ: Remdesivir only for restricted emergency use on Covid-19 patients: Govt

The EU expedited the authorisation, approving the drug in an exceptionally short timeframe, but not before the news that the US has already locked down a large

British factories are increasingly planning to lay off workers, a warning sign for the economy as it tries to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, an industry survey showed on Friday.

Some 46% of manufacturers expect to make redundancies over the next six months, up sharply from 25% in May, according to sectoral group Make UK which is calling on the government take more measures immediately to support jobs.

“Conditions are still very tough for many companies with disruption likely to continue for some time,” said Stephen Phipson, chief executive of Make UK.

“This has led some to reluctantly conclude that with demand unlikely to return for some time, if at all, they are moving to the painful choice of redundancy.”

The survey showed only a slight improvement in gauges of revenue and new orders.

Make

The members of the UN Security Council on Wednesday held an in-person meeting for the first time since mid-March, the council’s president for the month of July, German Ambassador to the United Nations Christoph Heusgen said in a press briefing.

“We had for the first time since for almost three and a half months a physical meeting of the members of the Security Council,” Heusgen said. “We met this morning in the German house [the Permanent Mission of Germany to the United Nations] with all the ambassadors, and we had a good informative discussion.”

Heusgen also said he hopes that in July, the Security Council will return to its regular in-person meetings at the UN headquarters in Manhattan if conditions allow.

“It’s much more convenient and much better for the atmosphere if we meet in person, but, of course,

The Chinese crisis and India scouting for alternative sources of pharmaceutical bulk drugs has come as a shot in the arm for sick public sector enterprise Hindustan Antibiotics Ltd (HAL). The company is charting a turnaround plan by starting to manufacture the key bulk drugs that the government has identified under a production linked incentive (PLI) scheme.

Speaking to Business Standard, Nirja Saraf, managing director of HAL said, “We are requesting the government to review the decision for strategic sale of HAL.”

The PSU is also planning to invest Rs 20 crore (as is also the requirement of the newly announced PLI scheme) to augment its production capacity at its Pune plant to make three key active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) – telmisartan, meropenem and gabapentin. Of these, meropenem is now in high demand also due to the Coronavirus pandemic. For 2020-21, it is