Sensex, Nifty under pressure; Dr Reddy's slumps, RIL dips

Moneycontrol Bureau11:55 am Deal talk: Virtusa Corporation has signed a definitive agreement to acquire 53 percent in Polaris Consulting & Services at Rs 220.73 per share. "This Virtusa-Polaris combination is that combination which is where the specialist peers are coming together in banking and financial and other industry segments with Virtusa where we can give the expertise right to the customer," Arun Jain, Chairman of Polaris tells CNBC-TV18.11:45 am SBI: Country's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) will announce its quarterly earnings on November 6. Analysts expect profit growth, which may be better than June quarter, to be dependent on provisions while net interest income and loan growth may be muted due to weak corporate loan demand during the quarter. According to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18, profit is seen rising 15.5 percent year-on-year to Rs 3,581 crore and net interest income may increase 6.21 percent to Rs 14,099 crore in July-September quarter.11:30 am Market outlook: The second quarter numbers have been mixed, but there are quite a few sectors — including some of the auto stocks, tech, media, private banks, among others — that have surprised on the upside, says Prabodh Agrawal of IIFL Institutional Equities. However, he has sharply reduced this year's Nifty earnings estimate to 8 percent from 16-17 percent at the beginning of the year. According to him, recovery may now happen only in FY17, but there is a lot of scepticism on that too. He is forecasting a 20 percent earnings growth in FY17. But there is a lot of disbelief on the number, he told CNBC-TV18.Don't miss: IDFC Bank debuts at Rs 72 on NSE

The market is under pressure on a earnings heavy day and ahead of Bihar polls results. The Sensex is up 24.71 points at 26328.91, and the Nifty is up 12.30 points at 7967.75. About 953 shares have advanced, 1103 shares declined, and 110 shares are unchanged.

Dr Reddy's Labs, Tata Steel, GAIL, Tata Motors and Sun Pharma are losers. SBI, Infosys, Bharti Airtel, L&T and Reliance.

Crude oil prices edged up on Friday after falling over 2 percent the previous session, with analysts saying oversupply and a strong dollar would continue to weigh on fuel markets.

US crude futures were trading at USD 45.46 a barrel at 0433 GMT, up 26 cents from their last settlement, while Brent crude rose 27 cents to USD 48.25 a barrel, but the gains followed steep falls the previous day on the back of climbing US crude inventories.