BSE IT index up nearly 4% in a week

IT shares extended gains today and the IT index was among the top gainers among sectoral indices on the Bombay Stock Exchange amid encouraging results and outlook from Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp.

At 11:25AM the BSE IT index was up 1% at 6,068. 

The IT index closed at 6,007 on May 8, up 3.7% compared with close of 5,855 on May 2, as per data available on BSE website.

Cognizant beat Infosys in terms of revenues on a full year basis, it exceeded the Bangalore-based company in most of the operating parameters as well.

During the last four quarters, the Nasdaq-listed company reported $7.655 billion in revenue, $255 million more than that of Infosys during this period (FY13).

The company has reaffirmed full-year guidance of 17 per cent,  higher than Nasscom’s estimation of 12-14 per cent for the Indian IT services sector and higher than Infosys’ guidance of 6-10 per cent.

"Encouraging earnings from Cognizant and outlook has reassured that the IT industry is in good health for the year ahead" said Ankita Somani, IT analyst at Angel Broking.

Indian software majors earn most of their revenues from exports to the US.

India's largest software exporter TCS recently said that it has a strong pipeline and this fiscal is going to be better than FY13.

TCS also announced the acquisition of Alti SA, an IT services company in France, to service its clients in France and across Europe.

Wipro, India's third-largest software exporter by sales, has forecasted revenue of $1.58 billion to $1.61 billion for its IT services business for the June quarter, compared with $1.59 billion March quarter.