TCS, Infosys, HCL Tech hit new high

S&P BSE IT index touched a record high of 11,001 during intra-day trade today.

Shares of information technology (IT) companies are continuing with their upward march with frontline stocks such as Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys and HCL Technologies hitting their respective record highs on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

At 1105 hours, S&P BSE IT index, the largest gainer among sectoral indices, was up 0.65% compared to 0.48% decline in benchmark index S&P BSE Sensex. IT index touched a record high of 11,001 in intra-day trade today.

Infosys was trading 1% higher at Rs 3,892, bouncing back over 3% from intra-day low on BSE. The stock of Infosys hit a low of Rs 3,770 in early morning deals after the company said a former employee has filed a lawsuit demanding damages for alleged wrongful termination.

The company said it believes current complaint is without any legal merit and will vigorously defend this complaint. The company expects the issue to be resolved at the earliest.

Meanwhile, analyst at Kotak Securities expects strong sequential revenue growth for Indian IT to be helped by a ramp-up of large deals in July-September quarter (2QFY15).

EBIT margins of all companies except Infosys will likely be flat or decline yoy, resulting in muted EBIT growth. The rupee depreciated sharply over May-September 2013, boosting margins for the September 2013 quarter, analyst said in results preview.

Analyst at Antique Stock Broking expect Tier-I players' revenues to grow 4.4% QoQ and expect midcaps to grow faster, at 4.8%.

"In 2Q, we expect TCS to show strong QoQ revenue growth of 6.4%, part of which will be on account of an additional USD 100 million from its Japanese initiative. We expect Infosys, HCL Technologies, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra to grow between 3% and 3.5% QoQ. Reversal of wage hikes, visa cost, and currency depreciation are likely to aid EBITDA margins during the quarter", analyst said in a report.

Bhuvnesh Singh, Hitesh Das - Barclays said, "We expect the top four Indian IT companies to deliver a seasonally strong Sep-14 quarter driven by improvement in the demand environment, stable US macro, and an increase in project award estimations by consultants like ISG".

However, despite expectations of strong volume growth, cross currency fluctuations (USD appreciation) are expected to impact USD revenue growth in Q2FY15 by some 60-70bps. For the companies we cover, we estimate quarterly growth rates of 0.9-4.8% (q/q USD, organic), with TCS likely to deliver the best revenue growth among the large caps. TCS and HCL Tech (both OW) are our top picks in the Indian IT services space, analyst said.