IT stocks gain after Infosys reports stronger-than-expected Q3 results

Five IT stocks rose by 0.98% to 5.85% at 14:15 IST on BSE after Infosys reported stronger-than-expected Q3 December 2014 results.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was down 29.69 points, or 0.11%, to 27,245.02.

Infosys rose 3.77% to Rs 2,049.36 after the company retained its revenue guidance for the fiscal year ending March 2015. In a press release, Infosys said that the company has maintained its guidance of 7%-9% growth in revenue in dollar terms for the year ending March 2015 (FY 2015) based on exchange rates as on 30 September 2014. Due to cross currency headwinds, analysts were expecting Infosys' management to prune the company's revenue growth guidance in dollar terms for FY 2015 at the time of announcement of Q3 results today, 9 January 2015.

At the time of announcement of Q2 September 2014 results, Infosys had on 10 October 2014 retained its earlier guidance of 7% to 9% growth in revenue in dollar terms for FY 2015. At that time, the company had raised its revenue growth guidance in rupee terms due to rupee depreciation. The company had raised the revenue growth guidance for FY 2015 in rupee terms to 6.7%-8.7% from earlier 5.6%-7.6% at that time. The revised guidance was based on rupee dollar conversion rate of 61.

On a consolidated basis, Infosys' net profit as per International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) rose 5% to Rs 3250 crore on 3.4% rise in revenue to Rs 13796 crore in Q3 December 2014 over Q2 September 2014.

Infosys and its subsidiaries added 59 clients (gross) in Q3 December 2014. It made a gross addition of 13,154 employees during the quarter. Infosys and its subsidiaries reported 1.69 lakh employees as on 31 December 2014.

Liquid assets including cash and cash equivalents, available-for-sale financial assets, certificates of deposits and government bonds were Rs 34873 crore as on 31 December 2014 as compared to Rs 33616 crore as on 30 September 2014.

Shares of other IT stocks also gained after Infosys announced its Q3 results. TCS (up 2.6%), HCL Technologies (up 0.98%) and Wipro (up 1.48%) gained.

Tech Mahindra jumped 5.85%. Tech Mahindra said during market hours that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire SOFGEN Holdings (SOFGEN), a niche consulting and services with worldwide presence specialising in private/wealth, commercial and retail banking solutions. The transaction is expected to close by March 2015, subject to regulatory approvals. SOFGEN has 450+ employees with 20+ tier 1 client relationships.

The BSE IT index had outperformed the market over the past one month till 8 January 2015, falling 1.19% compared with 3% fall in the Sensex. The scrip had however underperformed the market in past one quarter, declining 0.45% as against Sensex's 3.92% rise.

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