IT stocks gain ahead of March quarter results; TCS, Infosys, HCL Tech up 3%

Shares of information technology (IT) companies were in focus and trading higher by up to 5% on the BSE ahead of financial results for the fourth quarter and the year ended 31 March 2018.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and HCL Technologies from the large-cap IT stocks were up 3% to 4% on the BSE. NIIT Technologies, Datamatics Global Services, Zensar Technologies, Aptech, KPIT Technologies, Hexaware Technologies and Tata Elxsi from the mid and small-cap were up between 3% and 5% on the BSE.

At 11:28 am; the S&P BSE IT index, the largest gainer among sectoral indices, was up 2.7% as compared to 0.24% rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. The IT index is 3.6% away from its all-time high recorded on January 24, 2018 during intra-day trade.

Infosys is scheduled to announce its earnings for the period of January-March 2018 and the financial year 2017-2018 on Friday, April 13, 2018, while TCS is set to declare Q4 and FY18 results on April 19, 2018.

With improving economic outlook in US, higher adoption of outsourcing in Europe and digital services gaining scale, revenue acceleration looks certain for Indian IT companies, according to analysts at Edelweiss Securities.

Also Retail and Energy & Utility verticals have turned around and growth revival in BFSI fuels strong prospects for IT industry. While mid caps are expected to outpace large peers during current quarter, we perceive positive bias to large caps in the medium-to-long run as digital gains scale on account of execution capabilities, the brokerage firm said in a results preview.

Analysts at IIFL Institutional Equities expects the 4QFY18 results season to deliver a strong USD revenue growth (QoQ) of 2.8% with up to 180bps tailwinds from cross-currency movements, led by USD weakening against all the major currencies. Large-caps would grow 2.7% QoQ whereas mid-caps would outperform with average revenue growth of 3.5% QoQ on deal ramp-ups.

COMPANY	LATEST	PREV CLOSE	GAIN(%)
ZENSAR TECH.	992.80	947.95	4.73
NIIT TECH.	924.75	891.05	3.78
HCL TECHNOLOGIES	1004.10	968.15	3.71
KPIT TECH.	229.75	222.50	3.26
TCS	3112.00	3015.50	3.20
HEXAWARE TECH.	420.60	408.80	2.89
INFOSYS	1156.25	1123.90	2.88
TATA ELXSI	1069.55	1045.25	2.32
CYIENT	645.30	632.30	2.06
TECH MAHINDRA	644.80	631.95	2.03
MINDTREE	844.35	828.80	1.88
ORACLE FIN.SERV.	4010.00	3936.70	1.86
MPHASIS	918.95	903.05	1.76
PERSISTENT SYS	675.00	663.70	1.70
TAKE SOLUTIONS	191.50	188.65	1.51
INTELLECT DESIGN	172.30	170.15	1.26
SONATA SOFTWARE	336.00	333.05	0.89
WIPRO	288.35	286.00	0.82