Indian exporters shipping goods to Israel may face higher insurance premiums and shipping costs due to the Israel-Hamas conflict, according to experts. Israel witnessed a surprise and unprecedented multifront attack by air, land and sea by the Hamas militant group, which rules the Gaza Strip, in its southern parts on Saturday morning. The International trade experts said the conflict may reduce the profits of domestic exporters but will not impact trade volumes unless war escalates.
Among the Sensex firms, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies, Larsen & Toubro, ITC, Sun Pharma, NTPC and Titan were the major gainers. Nestle, Axis Bank, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel were the laggards.
The $140-billion Indian IT market is facing challenges on multiple fronts including stricter visa regime in key markets and shortage of skilled manpower for new technology areas like data science.
Even as banks and finance companies are reporting record-high earnings, their weighting in the benchmark National Stock Exchange Nifty50 Index has seen a downward trajectory. Investors expect a stronger performance from other sectors in the new year. Currently, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) companies collectively hold a weighting of 34.5 per cent, down from 36.7 per cent at the end of December 2022 and a record high of 40.6 per cent at the end of December 2019. This represents the sector's lowest weighting in the index since December 2021 when it stood at 33.7 per cent.
In the last couple of months, top Indian IT services providers, including TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCL Tech have announced setting up cyber threat management centres in the US and Europe.
'A cutback in hiring and compensation growth by IT companies will have a significant impact on consumer demand, especially in the urban sector of the economy.'
Trouble started brewing after Cognizant announced that Ravi Kumar, former Infosys president, would take over as the Nasdaq-listed company's CEO.
Stellar results compared to TCS led to reversal of valuation discount.
The June quarter is usually considered as a seasonally strong period for the IT sector.
Certain changes in the past two or three years could have a long-term structural impact on the IT services market.
Reliance Industries Ltd was the biggest wealth creator during the five-year period from 2018 to 2023 while Adani Enterprises Ltd was the top all-round wealth creator, according to a study by Motilal Oswal Financial Services. The study, based on stock market performance of companies, said for the fifth time in succession, Reliance emerged as the largest wealth creator, adding Rs 9,63,800 crore wealth over 2018-23. It was followed by Tata Consultancy Services (Rs 6,77,400 crore wealth addition), ICICI Bank (Rs 4,15,500 crore), Infosys (Rs 3,61,800 crore) and Bharti Airtel (Rs 2,80,800 crore).
From the Sensex pack, Infosys tanked over 8 per cent after the company reported a lower-than-expected 11 per cent rise in net profit for the June quarter and delivered a shocker as it slashed its FY24 growth outlook to 1-3.5 per cent on delayed decision-making by clients amid global macro uncertainties. Hindustan Unilever, HCL Technologies, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra were the other major laggards. On the other hand, Larsen & Toubro rose the most by 3.88 per cent after it bagged an order of worth over Rs 7,000 crore from the bullet train project.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has been ranked the third most-valued IT services brand globally, after Accenture and IBM, according to a report by Brand Finance. Four Indian IT services companies -- TCS, Infosys, HCL and Wipro -- secured spots in the top-10 global tally.
Infosys had guided for a revenue growth in the range of 11.5-13.5%, which has now been lowered to 10-12%.
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.
The combined assets of the top five - Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys Technologies, Wipro, HCL Technologies and Tech Mahindra were down one per cent to Rs 27,7400 crore at the end of 2017-18, from Rs 28,0100 crore a year before.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's largest IT services firm, is planning to increase salaries by an average of 7-8 per cent for its offsite employees and 2-4 per cent for its onsite staffers in 2024-25. High performers can expect a raise of 12-15 per cent. The company, which had a headcount of 603,305 as of December 31, 2023, will be closely looking at the promotions and the process may also get pushed to the first quarter of FY25, revealed a source on condition of anonymity, because he is not authorised to speak to the media.
Equity benchmark BSE Sensex closed at an all-time high of 62,272.68 on Thursday, tracking a firm trend in global markets after the US Fed minutes indicated a slower pace of rate increase that bolstered investors' sentiment. Extending its rally to the third straight day, the 30-share BSE benchmark rallied 762.10 points or 1.24 per cent to settle at 62,272.68, its record closing peak. During the day, it jumped 901.75 points or 1.46 per cent to its lifetime high of 62,412.33.he broader NSE Nifty gained 216.85 points or 1.19 per cent to end at 18,484.10.
Cognizant Technology Solutions has restructured its global growth markets (GGM) by appointing two internal leaders who will now share the responsibility. The move follows the exit of former GGM leader Rob Walker last month and is among the slew of leadership changes the company has seen in the recent past. GGM refers to the company's emerging markets outside of North America.
As the job markets open up, top IT services firms may look at a tiered strategy in which they hire entry-level talents at higher salaries, amid a major technological shift, say HR analysts.
2019, however, will be a bigger test as the firm continues to deal with rising attrition and margin pressure.
Six of the top 10 most valued Indian firms added a cumulative Rs 86,683.71 crore in market valuation last week, with HDFC twins emerging as the biggest gainers. On the top 10 chart, HDFC Bank, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bharti Airtel and HCL Technologies were gainers. While, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) and Infosys saw erosion in their market valuation.
Through these new hires and centres, Infosys will also focus on enhancing its play in new technology areas like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, user experience, cloud and big data.
India's software industry mounts two-pronged campaign to tackle Trump administration. Ayan Pramanik & Karan Choudhury report.
Ukraine is currently in the middle of a strategic offensive into Russia's Kursk region.
Investors' wealth fell by Rs 2.39 lakh crore on Monday in line with a weak trend in the global equity markets. The BSE Sensex tanked 861.25 points or 1.46 per cent to settle at 57,972.62. During the day, it tumbled 1,466.4 points or 2.49 per cent to 57,367.47.
Benchmark equity indices Sensex and Nifty ticked higher for the ninth straight session on Thursday, buoyed by fag-end buying in banking, financial and realty stocks amid encouraging domestic retail inflation data. Weak trends in IT counters and fall in the overnight US equity markets triggered by fresh concerns over recession, however, put a check on market's uptrend. In a largely subdued session, the 30-share BSE Sensex went up marginally by 38.23 points or 0.06 per cent to settle at 60,431.
Benchmark equity index Sensex and Nifty gave up early gains and ended lower on Monday as investor sentiment was hit due to unabated foreign fund outflows and losses in index heavyweights Reliance Industries and HDFC Bank. The 30-share BSE Sensex declined 168.21 points or 0.28 per cent to settle at 60,092.97 as 15 of its constituents dropped. The barometer opened higher and touched a high of 60,586.77 in morning session. Later in the day, it fell 297.35 points or 0.49 per cent to 59,963.83.
Companies now require more than just academic marks; they seek students with internship experience or extra certification courses.
Strong performance by technology (tech) stocks in the current year has led to superior returns in information technology (IT) sector funds. On average, tech funds have given returns of 63.53 per cent in the past one year, the highest among all categories of funds, reveals the data from Value Research. Market participants say that Covid-19 has accelerated the growth of IT companies with rise in demand for digitisation.
While most analysts remain positive on TCS and Infosys, they are cautious on Wipro.
The proposed campus will come up on around 125 acres, which the company will acquire from airport authorities, and would house as many as 3,000 employees.
Credit Suisse thinks it possible for the company to narrow its forecast ('guidance') range.
Pravin Rao says firms with revenue of $600-700 millon will be preferred.
TCS is setting up a large BPO operation in Varanasi next year, some staff could be absorbed there
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd climbed eight spots to the 45th rank, the highest for an Indian company on Forbes' latest Global 2000 list of public companies worldwide.
N Chandrasekaran saw his annual compensation rise to Rs 25.6 crore.
However, the demand for traditional IT work might decline.
The company will operate the IT system for five years.
With the last quarter of 2023-24 (FY24) expected to have been soft owing to lower discretionary spend and macro uncertainty, many are hoping FY25 will be a year of recovery for the information-technology (IT) industry. The fourth quarter, January-March, is considered soft, and will continue to see the headwinds the sector has been facing. And the sector has entered the new financial year on a weak footing. Analysts are expecting Tier-I firms to report sequential growth of -1 per cent to 1.5 per cent and midcap players' growth may range between 0.7 per cent and 4 per cent.