The BSE benchmark, the Sensex was trading 137.58 points or 0.53% lower at 25,757.39 points, while the NSE's Nifty was trading 48.70 points or 0.63% lower at 7,672.60 points at 9.45 am IST.

On Thursday, the US markets cracked after Argentina announced that it had defaulted on its debt. The Dow Jones closed 1.88% lower, while Nasdaq ended 2.09% lower on Friday.

Indian factory activity expanded at its fastest pace in 17 months in July as firms responded to burgeoning new orders by increasing output even as input prices jumped sharply, a business survey showed on Friday.

The HSBC Manufacturing Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) , compiled by Markit, rose to 53.0 in July from 51.5 in June, its highest since February 2013. A reading above 50 separates growth from contraction.

Telecom stocks – Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications (RCom) – are trading higher by as much as 3% on reports that mobile tariffs could rise between 8–9% going ahead.

In an interview with Economic Times, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairman, Rahul Khullar has suggested that he sees mobile call rates rising by 8-9% over the year as phone companies weed out freebies.

DLF, India's largest real estate player has reported 29 per cent decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 127.8 crore for the quarter ended June due to lower sales in the quarter.

The net profit stood at Rs 181.2 crore in the same quarter of last year. The total income from operations also declined by 25 per cent to Rs 1,725.2 crore in April-June quarter this year against Rs 2,314 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

ICICI Bank, India’s largest private sector lender, reported a 17 per cent growth in its standalone net profit to Rs 2,655 crore in the April-June quarter, compared with Rs 2,274 crore in the year-ago quarter, on the back of both higher core and fee income.

The profit numbers were slightly higher than a Bloomberg consensus estimate of Rs 2,592.8 crore. However, the stock closed lower by 1.1 per cent to Rs 1,473 a share on the BSE on Thursday, while overall indices were down 0.74 per cent.

NTPC, the largest thermal power producer in the country, registered a decline of 13 per cent in profit, owing to new tariff regulation.

The unaudited profit after tax stood at Rs 2,201 crore for the first quarter of financial year 2014-15, compared to Rs 2,527 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

Shareholders of Tata Motors raised the alarming slide in car and truck market shares repeatedly at the company's 69th annual general meeting held here on Thursday.

Tata Motors' shareholders were disappointed that Maruti Suzuki, Hyundai and Mahindra & Mahindra had cruised past in all automobile segments created by the Mumbai-based company.

Maruti Suzuki India, the country’s largest car maker, reported a 20.7 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 762 crore for the financial year’s first quarter ended June.

This was on the back of strong sales, cost reduction initiatives and favourable foreign exchange (forex) movement.

Engineering major Larsen & Toubro’s (L&T’s) share price fell the most in a year on brokerage downgrades after the company’s dismal first quarter numbers. Shares of the company fell 7.32 per cent to Rs 1,542, a two-month low.

Citigroup downgraded L&T from ‘buy’ to ‘neutral’ and said that investors “need to curb their enthusiasm”. Despite today’s fall, shares of L&T are up 42% so far in 2014 compared to a 24% increase in the benchmark Sensex.

MUMBAI: Solid gains in Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank and HDFC shares helped the benchmark sensex on Wednesday log its first rise in three sessions and end about 96 points higher to reclaim the 26,000 level despite sharp losses suffered by Larsen &Toubro.

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