A sharp drop in banking stocks following weak results and Coal India's mega offering saw the markets post their biggest drop in three weeks on Friday. Earnings posted by ICICI Bank and Bank of Baroda raised asset quality concerns, spooking banking stocks - which have weight of nearly a third on benchmark indices. Market players said selling pressure accentuated as investors liquidated their positions to invest in the share sale of state-owned Coal India.

Customers of Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices and BSNL in some circles have reported maximum discrepancies in their phone bills, according to a latest report by telecom regulator TRAI.

As per the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) guideline, not more than 0.1 per cent of the total bills raised by a company in a service area should be disputed.

Ashok Leyland’s Q3 results were strong as volumes grew 80% y-o-y and 6% q-o-q on the recovery in the MHCV cycle and the economy.

Launch of various products led to this growth. The company’s market share rose to 26.6% in MHCV truck segment, which was a drastic improvement from 20% y-o-y and in the bus segment, it rose 250 bps to 37.5% y-o-y.

ICICI Bank, the country's largest private sector lender, said on Friday its consolidated net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2014, rose 14 per cent from a year earlier to Rs 3,265 crore.

On a standalone basis, the net profit was up 14 per cent from a year before, at Rs 2,889 crore.

The Securities Appellate Tribunal on Friday heard some arguments on Friday in real estate major DLF’s appeal against the heavy penalty imposed on it last year by the stock market regulator, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).The matter will next be heard on February 6.

The tribunal heard arguments by counsel for Sebi. Counsel for DLF answered queries the tribunal had previously sought clarification on, beside making its arguments against the Sebi order.

State-run power generator NTPC reported single-digit growth in earnings and a mraginal decline in revenues during the quarter ended December, extending its two-year run of muted earnings’ growth. The company reported a seven per cent year-on-year increase in its consolidated net profit in the quarter to Rs 3,074 crore against Rs 2,861 crore last year. The net sales were down 0.2 per cent y-o-y to Rs 18,739 crore. The NTPC has reported negative profit growth in three quarters.

Country's largest software exporter Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said on Thursday it has been picked as the best IT service provider in Europe in terms of both customer satisfaction and performance, according to a survey.

The pan-European survey, conducted by Whitelane Research, polled 1,470 CEOs, CIOs, CFOs, COOs and CTOs from top IT spending European organisations controlling over 4,200 IT contracts across 13 countries. The survey evaluated performance and levels of satisfaction with 23 leading IT services companies operating in the continent.

Madhya Pradesh government on Thursday expressed confidence that Special Economic Zones (SEZ) of IT gaints Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and one more company will be operational by 2017 in Indore. The SEZs of the three companies were notified in 2013.

"For SEZs of TCS, Infosys and Impetus, the state government has issued all no objection certificates. I had talks with representatives of the three companies and they have assured that their units will be operational by 2017," State Information Technology Minister Bhupendra Singh, told reporters.

Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today hinted that there may not be any cut in train fares in spite of the fall in diesel prices.

“Actually, the Railways recover only 50 per cent of the passenger cost they bear. So, there is already a huge element of subsidy (and passengers are getting benefits as passenger fare is subsidised),” Prabhu told reporters here.

We maintain a ‘buy’ rating on HDFC Bank and raise price target to Rs 1,255 (earlier Rs 1,240). The stock trades at 5x adjusted book value (December 2014) and 21.4x 12-month rolling earnings (Dec 15). Our target implies a forward book multiple of 4.4x and 20.0x earnings versus last eight-year averages of 3.9x and 19.8x, respectively.

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