An aggressive rate hike by the US Fed and the possibility of a recession can trigger a slide in these stocks, which will be a good opportunity to buy from a long-term perspective.
Among the Sensex firms, Asian Paints, NTPC, Tata Motors, Bharti Airtel, State Bank of India, Larsen & Toubro, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, ITC, HDFC Bank and Maruti were the biggest winners. Hindustan Unilever, Infosys, UltraTech Cement, Bajaj Finance, Nestle, Axis Bank, Reliance Industries and HDFC were among the laggards.
IT major Wipro on Thursday said it will pay Rs 7 crore (Rs 70 million) each to its former joint chief executives Girish Paranjpe and Suresh Vaswani as severance packages.
Wipro CFO Suresh C Senapaty on Thursday said there is hope of corporate sector sentiments improving after P Chidambaram assumed charge as Union Finance Minister and wanted the Centre to convert it into policy action.
JP Morgan has reiterated its negative stance on Indian information technology (IT) services and downgraded the sector to underweight (neutral earlier post Q4-FY23 numbers), as it believes the overall demand environment for the sector still remains weak. The research firm expects most companies in the sector to disappoint while announcing their first quarter numbers for the current fiscal (Q1-FY24). Among stocks, it has placed Infosys, TCS, MphasiS in its 'negative catalyst watch'.
Nasdaq-listed information technology (IT) services firm Cognizant will incur the cost of $400 million over two years as it sets to restructure its operations amid sluggish growth rates. Its NextGen Program aims at simplifying the operating model, optimising corporate functions, and consolidating and realigning office space to reflect a post-pandemic hybrid work environment. As part of this structural shift, Cognizant will eliminate 80,000 seats, or 11 million square feet of real estate in large cities in India.
SBI was the biggest loser in the Sensex pack, tumbling 2.83 per cent, followed by Infosys, TCS, Bajaj Finance, Tech Mahindra, Wipro and Axis Bank. In contrast, Titan, L&T, NTPC, Power Grid, Sun Pharma, ITC and HDFC twins were among the prominent winners, rising as much as 1.97 per cent.
The 30-share Sensex ended up 140 points at 28,262 and the 50-share Nifty was up 37 points at 8,551.
The Q1FY24 earnings season has started on a dismal note for corporate India. The early-bird companies' revenue growth has been at a 10-quarter low, while the combined earnings of non-BFSI (banking, financial services, and insurance) companies seem to have hit the ceiling. The numbers suggest corporate India is entirely dependent on BFSI companies and the IT services sector to drive growth in revenue and profit while other sectors are showing signs of stagnation.
In an interview with Mahesh Kulkarni and Archana Prasanna, Wipro's joint chief executive officer Girish Paranjpe says the company expects uniform growth in information technology spends, despite flat to marginally positive IT budgets in 2010.
Wipro, Power Grid, Larsen & Toubro, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tech Mahindra, NTPC, Titan, Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Technologies were among the other major winners. Bajaj Finance, IndusInd Bank, Asian Paints, Hindustan Unilever, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank were among the laggards.
The IT exporter had a net profit of Rs 978.2 crore (Rs 9.78 billion) in the September quarter of last fiscal, Wipro said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. Total income of the company rose to Rs 7,057.4 crore (Rs 70.57 billion) during the July-September quarter of the current fiscal, from Rs 6,664.8 crore (Rs 66.64 billion) in the year-ago period, as per the Indian accounting norms.
The total income of the company rose by 34.64 per cent at Rs 4,883.6 crore (Rs 48.83 billion) for the quarter reviewed against Rs 3,627 crore (Rs 36.27 billion) for the same quarter last year, Wipro said in a communique to the Bombay Stock Exchange.
Snapping a six-day losing run, equity indices settled in the green after a highly volatile session on Monday, with the Sensex climbing 237 points amid positive cues from European markets. The BSE benchmark gained 237.42 points or 0.46 per cent to settle at 51,597.84. During the day, it hit a high of 51,714.61 and a low of 51,062.93.
Wipro, HCL in race for Sebi's fraud detection system upgrade,
Among the Sensex firms, Wipro, Axis Bank, Titan, UltraTech Cement and HDFC Bank, HDFC, HCL Tech and Reliance were the gainers.
Market benchmarks fell for third day running on Monday and ended nearly 1 per cent lower amid weak trend in global equities. The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 518.64 points or 0.84 per cent to settle at 61,144.84. During the day, it tumbled 604.15 points or 0.97 per cent to 61,059.33.
From the Sensex pack, Infosys, HCL Technologies, Infosys, NTPC, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, Nestle, Tech Mahindra and Bajaj Finance were the major gainers. Power Grid, Larsen & Toubro, Maruti, Titan, HDFC Bank, Wipro, HDFC and ITC were among the laggards.
The current (third) decade of IT services is based on process improvement and creation of intellectual property
Unfazed by the US outcry on outsourcing and the implications of the recent cut in number of US visas, Wipro Chairman Azim Premji aims to turn his company into one of the top 10 IT service companies in the world.
Benchmark BSE Sensex and Nifty closed higher in a highly volatile trade on Monday, riding on the back of a recovery in IT, oil and financial stocks after a two-day fall. The 30-share Sensex recovered 169.51 points or 0.29 per cent to settle at 59,500.41. During the day, it rose by 313.34 points or 0.52 per cent to 59,644.24.
The Nifty IT has been one of the worst-performing indices on the bourses this calendar year. Rising concerns of a potential global recession, which investors fear can dampen demand for export-facing domestic information technology (IT) giants, have sent the index down over 30 per cent on a year-to-date basis. By comparison, the Nifty50 Index has shed 2.8 per cent during the period, reveals data by ACE Equity.
The government on Wednesday granted approval to Nokia, Wipro, Hewlett Packard, Reliance, Biocon, Ranbaxy Laboratories, Mahindra and Mahindra, Reliance energy and Adani Group's to set up Special Economic zones.
India's second largest IT services company Infosys on Thursday made it clear that the company does not support moonlighting and said it has fired employees who were into dual employment over the last 12 months. Infosys, however, did not divulge the exact number of people who were "let go" on account of moonlighting. Last month, Wipro chairman Rishad Premji revealed that some 300 employees were fired as the IT services company had no place for any employee who chose to work directly with rivals while being on Wipro payrolls.
The West Bengal state government has delayed project approvals. And now, the IT giants may look at other states as the centre is thinking of giving sops to SEZs