Infosys climbs around 2%; all eyes on December quarter results

Shares of Infosys climbed as much as 1.9 per cent to Rs 741.45 apiece on Friday on the BSE ahead of its December quarter (Q3FY20) results due later in the day.

The IT bellwether is scheduled to release its quarterly numbers around 3:45 pm today. Following the release, the management team will hold a press conference around 4:30 pm. CLICK TO READ PRESS RELEASE

Infosys is expected to post revenue growth of 0.9 per cent to 2.1 per cent on a sequential basis (in constant currency terms) for the quarter ended December 31. Few analysts expect the company to raise its revenue outlook for the 2019-20 financial year. Among other key monitorables in the result will be composition of the total contract value (TCV) — net new contracts and renewals.

Here's what to expect from Infosys' Q3 results

Apart from these, any audit committee update on investigation into whistleblower complaints against the company will be keenly watched. According to Centrum Broking Wealth, the outcome of the probe report would be a key catalyst for the stock.

In the September quarter of the current financial year, the IT bellwether had reported a 2.2 per cent YoY fall in its consolidated net profit to Rs 4,019 crore. This was against a net profit of Rs 4,110 crore in the same period the previous year. Sequentially, the numbers had grown 5.8 per cent. Revenue in the July-September quarter had risen 9.8 per cent to Rs 22,629 crore, against Rs 20,609 crore in the year-ago period. The company had also raised its lower-end of the FY20 revenue guidance to 9-10 per cent in constant currency terms.

A few other things to watch out for in the quarterly result on Friday will be the company’s commentary on digital growth rates, stress segments in the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), retail, and consumer packaged goods (CPG) segments, and progress on initiatives to manage attrition. These apart, outlook on client budgets and spends for 2020 calendar year will also be keenly eyed.

At 09:31 am, the stock was trading over 1 per cent higher at Rs 735.70. In comparison, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex was trading 119.50 points or 0.29 per cent higher at 41,571 levels.

In the past three months (October-December), shares of Infosys have slipped over 9 per cent as against 6 per cent rise in the benchmark Nifty50 index. Nifty IT index, on the other hand, has gained 0.72 per cent.