IT shares gain on weak rupee; Infosys nears 52-week high

Infosys rallied nearly 3% to Rs 1,217 on the NSE in intra-day deal, trading close to its 52-week high of Rs 1,221 touched on January 24, 2018 in intra-day trade.

Shares of information technology (IT) companies were trading higher as rupee extended weakness against the dollar. The frontline IT stocks such as Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies and Tech Mahindra were up in the range of 1% to 2% on the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

Persistent Systems, Larsen & Toubro Infotech, Intellect Design Arena, Zensar Technologies, Firstsource Solutions, Hexaware Technologies, SQS India BFSI, Sasken Technologies, Sonata Software and NIIT Technologies were up between 1% and 4% on the BSE.

At 11:01 am; Nifty IT index, the largest gainer among sectoral indices, was up 1.5% as compared to 0.37% rise in the Nifty 50 index.

On Wednesday, the rupee dropped 0.6% to a 17-month low of 68.42 against the dollar. The rupee is inching towards its record low of 68.85, touched on August 28, 2013. The rupee is down 8% from its 2018 high of 63.37, making it the worst-performing currency in the region.

Currency consultants have started to give a call that rupee could touch 70 to a dollar in the coming months. Abishek Goenka, managing director of IFA Global, said the rupee could extend fall till the 73-mark before March 2019, if the 10-year US Treasury yield crosses 3.5%, the Business Standard report suggested. CLICK HERE TO READ FULL REPORT

A weak rupee boosts revenue of IT firms in rupee terms as the sector derives a lion's share of revenue from exports.

Infosys has rallied nearly 3% to Rs 1,217 on the NSE in intra-day deal, trading close to its 52-week high of Rs 1,221 touched on January 24, 2018 in intra-day trade.

KPIT Technologies touched a new high of Rs 271, up 5% on the NSE in early morning trade after the company said it expect to register a growth of 8% to 10% in USD revenues for FY19 with operational EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation) margins in the range of 11.5% to 12.5%.”

Pune based IT consulting and product engineering company reported a net profit of Rs 766 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2018, up 23.7% quarter on quarter, and 42.6% year on year. The revenue for the quarter was Rs 9,664 million, up 6% sequentially and 12.6% YoY.