 "Stocks to watch: Tata Motors, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel in focus")
Markets are likely to open in the negative territory tracking weakness among the global peers. However, corporate earnings and stock specific action are likely to dictate the trend on the bourses later during the day.
Asian stocks and the euro handed back gains and slipped on Thursday after the European Central Bank took a hard line stance on Greece's debt and dampened optimism towards a resolution to the saga.
Risk appetite, which had warmed earlier in the week on hopes that Greece would gain relief from its creditors, took a hit after the ECB pulled back its soft treatment of Greek debt and canceled its acceptance of the country's bonds in return for funding.
Investors also became more risk-averse as an extended rally in crude oil petered out. Wall Street snapped a two-day surge overnight, weighed by a slide in energy shares.
The early indicator SGX Nifty is up 0.08% to 8,762.50 levels.
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A surge in mobile data revenues helped Bharti Airtel, the country's largest telecom service provider, to more than double its consolidated net profit to Rs 1,436 crore in the financial year's third quarter ended December 2014.
HDFC Bank, the second-largest private sector bank, launched its programme to raise Rs 10,000 crore through a combination of share sales to qualified institutional investors and the issue of American Depository Receipts (ADRs) on Wednesday.
Reliance Industries (RIL) said on Wednesday it had raised $750 million (Rs 4,624 crore) through issue of bonds to global investors abroad.
Drug maker Dr Reddy's Laboratories is set to expand the capacity of three of its bulk drugs and intermediates manufacturing plants located in Telangana, with a combined investment of Rs 82 crore.
Riding high on the other income, Tata Power reported a Rs 198-crore consolidated net profit in the quarter of this financial year. It had reported a Rs 75-crore loss last year. The total income during the quarter rose to Rs 8,806 crore from Rs 8,700 crore last year due to the increased availability of the Mundra power plant and power trading business. Excluding other operating income, the net revenue at Rs 8,754 crore (up one per cent year-on-year) fell three per cent short of Bloomberg estimates.
Investors will keenly watch out for the quarterly results of Tata Motors, IOB, IRB Infra, Allahbad Bank, JSW Energy, Hindustan Copper and Financial Tech.