Despite the wobble in the markets over the past few weeks, Indian equities remain expensive as measured by several yardsticks. India's market capitalisation-to-GDP ratio, for instance, has touched a multi-year high. The ratio is currently at 116 per cent, based on the FY22E gross domestic product (GDP) number, above its long-term average of 79 per cent.
Vineet Nayar, chief executive of HCL Technologies till January this year, has decided to step down from the board of the company.
Both firms have broken TCS' streak of industry-leading performance over the past few quarters by posting higher revenue and earnings growth this quarter.
Consolidated dollar revenue $1,321 million, up 4% q-o-q.
HCL Technologies on Monday said it has signed a 110 million Singapore dollars (around Rs 366 crore) five-year deal to manage computerised network for the Singapore Exchange.
'We're seeing major Bollywood celebrities, fashion icons, and even movie studios all wanting to build Metaverse experiences'
Reliance Industries Ltd, the country's largest company by revenues, profits and market value, has topped Indian corporate in the World's Best Employers rankings 2021 published by Forbes. Reliance was placed at 52 in the overall ranking of 750 global corporates likes Phillips, Sanofi, Pfizer and Intel. Other Indian names in the top 100 rankings were ICICI Bank at 65, HDFC Bank at 77 and HCL Technologies at 90, according to the Forbes ranking.
After a sharp correction over the last few months, analysts seem to be turning cautiously optimistic on the information technology (IT) sector and suggest there could be trading opportunities in select counters despite revenue and growth concerns that still plague the sector. "IT stocks valuations have corrected 17 per cent-49 per cent and stock prices have corrected 9 - 42 per cent since mid-December 2021. Nifty IT index valuation has corrected by 27 per cent and price by 21 per cent. "About two quarters ago, we made a case that valuation drivers have peaked.
Last month, a Wall Street Journal report said Nadar planned to sell his stake worth $10 billion (or about Rs 61,000 crore, based on Wednesday's stock price of Rs 1,458.95) and was scouting for potential buyers.
The first quarter earnings season will dictate the trend in the equity markets in this holiday-shortened week amid absence of major macroeconomic drivers, say analysts. Besides, lacklustre global markets may increase volatility in the market, they added. Equity markets would remain closed on Wednesday for Bakri-Id.
Axis Bank was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rallying over 4 per cent, followed by ICICI Bank, UltraTech Cement, HUL, SBI, PowerGrid, Bajaj Auto and Reliance Industries. NSE Nifty jumped 143.65 points to 14,485.
Consolidated revenues grew 11.4 per cent at Rs 10,341 crore.
Equity benchmarks began the week on a downbeat note on Monday, weighed by heavy selling in market heavyweight Reliance Industries and persisting weakness in global bourses. The rupee plunged to its lifetime low against the US dollar amid unabated foreign fund outflows, underscoring the risk-off sentiment prevailing globally as central banks embark on policy tightening to tame soaring inflation. Slipping for the second straight session, the 30-share BSE Sensex shed 364.91 points or 0.67 per cent to close at 54,470.67.
Among the many exits from the billionaire's club in 2022 are D Uday Kumar Reddy of Tanla Solutions (net worth down 66 per cent), Sushil Kanubhai Shah of Metropolis Healthcare (down 65.7 per cent), Vijay Shekhar Sharma of One97 Communications (down 66 per cent), and C K Birla (down 43.4 per cent).
Top Indian IT services companies - TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCL Tech - have said that they would continue to hire freshers through campus interviews, though lateral hiring will be mostly on exception basis.
Another negative surprise in HCL's numbers was the decline in the margin by 40 basis points to 21.4 per cent.
C Vijayakumar, the reticent chief executive of HCL Technologies, India's third-largest IT services firm, was recently appointed managing director, succeeding the founder, Shiv Nadar. Back in October 2016, when CVK, as he is popularly called within and outside of HCL, was named CEO, it had been somewhat of a surprise - his elevation being the result of his predecessor, Anant Gupta, suddenly stepping down to "pursue personal interests". CVK, 53, has since taken the firm from under $7 billion to over $10 billion in revenue.
'Companies are being forced to pay higher salaries to retain and hire employees due to a big rise in attrition in the industry.'
In a major relief to Indian information technology (IT) companies operating in Australia, Canberra has agreed to amend its domestic laws to stop taxing offshore income of such Indian companies, as part of the free trade deal inked. This may lead to savings up to $200 million each year for over 100 Indian IT companies operating in Australia. "The Government of Australia has agreed to amend the domestic taxation law to stop the taxation of offshore income of Indian firms providing technical services to Australia. "This will resolve the issue that the Indian government has raised about the double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) between the two governments for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income," said a commerce ministry official.
During the quarter, HCL added 37 customers.
The reduction in hiring indicates a shift in the business model from hiring thousands of people to write code cheap to using artificial intelligence for repeatable tasks.
The analyst community tracking the Indian IT services industry took special note of Accenture's first quarter (Q1) performance, which showcased the rapid growth of its consulting business that outperformed its outsourcing business. Bookings indicate that the trend will continue. Consulting bookings increased 41.6 per cent year-on-year (yoy) to $9.4 billion, higher than the 17.6 per cent growth in outsourcing to $7.4 billion. The management commentary was also more bullish on the consulting business.
Apart from such advisory, IT biggies such as TCS, Infosys and HCL Tech among others have been pursuing 'remote working' model to overcome the situation.
'Our focus on fresher induction is high, given that they come in with certain advantages.' 'They do not have an unlearning process as seen in senior employees.'
Their plan to build a product portfolio will discourage global software vendors such as Oracle, Microsoft and Fidelity, among others, from building a strategic relationship with these big Indian IT firms, reports Debasis Mohapatra.
According to the capital allocation policy approved by the shareholders in April last year, Infosys plans to give back around Rs 10,400 crore to shareholders by the end of this financial year.
While industry leaders Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro have announced deferring wage-hike plans, other players such as Infosys and HCL Technologies are expected to follow suit, according to industry insiders.
IT firm HCL Technologies on Thursday opened a new Global Delivery Centre in Redmond, Washington, where the company will initially invest $4 million (about Rs 19 crore), leading to the creation of 400 jobs over the next two years.
Most of the large Indian IT services players, such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and HCL Tech, have signalled increased offshoring efforts and opting for local hires in the US, primarily to address the immigration-related challenges.
IT firm HCL Technologies on Wednesday posted 78.1 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 884.8 crore (Rs 8.84 billion) for the first quarter ended September 30.
HCL Tech is confident of sustaining margins in FY15.
Needed: Technical Support Officers and Customer Service Executives for HCL Technologies.
Consolidated revenues grew by 13.4% at Rs 9,283 crore.
Market breadth was negative, 1528 stocks declined for 704 stocks which advanced.
India has the third highest number of billionaires in the world after the US and China, according to a new list by the prestigious Forbes magazine, which said Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani reclaimed his spot as Asia's richest person, dethroning Chinese business tycoon Jack Ma who was the richest person in the region a year ago.
All-stock deal likely to be wrapped up in two months.
'Remote Working/Work from Home' strategy has been activated to aid social distancing in the impacted regions. Travel advisory across the organisation has been issued with full precautionary measure.
HCL Technologies on Friday said it has opened a global IT development centre in Sao Leopoldo, Brazil, to cater to clients across Latin America, North America and Europe.
Clients are seen realigning their tech strategy by moving works from own captives to third-party service providers which is mostly benefiting to large companies such as Infosys, TCS, Wipro or HCL Technologies.
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