The Street shrugged off a muted first quarter of financial year 2023-24 (Q1FY24) and a cautious near-term outlook by India's largest information technology (IT) services company, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The stock was the top Nifty50 and Sensex gainer on Thursday, rising 2.5 per cent, as investors took comfort from a robust order book and an encouraging pipeline. Like its larger peer, HCL Technologies' (HCL Tech), too fell short of the Street's expectations on the revenue and margin fronts given cuts in discretionary expenditure.
Rajiv Suri's resignation is effective August 25, the company said in a stock exchange filing. Suri quit for personal reasons and would pursue a career outside India, it added.
The government's austerity drive announced on Thursday , would lead to a saving of up to Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion) or 0.3 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but poses risks to growth, Japanese brokerage Nomura has said.
Gold jewellery demand in India is likely to decline in the second and third quarters of this fiscal due to hike in import duty, high volatility in prices and inflationary pressure, according to a report. While demand is likely to contract by 8 per cent year-on-year in the second quarter of FY23, the decline is expected to be higher at 15 per cent in the third quarter due to the exceptionally high base in the same period of FY22, Icra said in a report. According to the report, the exceptional third quarter performance in FY22 was due to the post-Covid reopening of the economy and the substantially high demand in the wedding and festive seasons.
For banks to give debt requires equity from promoters, Kumar said, adding that the number of people or business houses who have that capability to invest has shrunk.
A pick-up in low-cost cigarette consumption helped India's largest cigarette maker boost margins
It may be a little early to cheer the recovery in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) space as a deceleration in discretionary demand, after the festival season, may offset fragile rural recovery, analysts have cautioned. "The overall demand environment for staples remains muted, while discretionary demand trends have seen some deceleration after the festival season. "We believe margins in staples have bottomed out, but we expect only a gradual uptick with the ongoing softening in raw material prices.
Business activity contracted in Q2 FY20, the first contraction since 2013-14 and the second since the 2008 global financial crisis, report, Abhishek Waghmare and Anup Roy.
With the world's worst pandemic outbreak scarring nascent economic recovery, the government may at the beginning of the unlock phase announce another stimulus package for the most hit sectors such as small business and self-employed, Bernstein said. The brokerage in a note said its macro index suggests a deterioration in economic activity during April/May. "Energy consumption has moderated, with power down over 4 per cent and oil consumption down over 16 per cent in May so far (all 2-year CAGR). "E-waybills are down 16 per cent, suggesting the impact of scale down in factory production for some product categories, owing to the shut down in retail outlets.
In July-Sept 2016-2017, TCS had missed street expectations with 7.8% growth in revenue.
After underperforming its peers in the consumer space in 2022-23, and experiencing a mixed bag in the 2023-24 (FY24) April-June quarter (first quarter, or Q1), brokerages are positive about the medium-term outlook for liquor stocks. Higher raw material costs, concerns regarding increased duties, regulatory changes, and competitive pressures weighed on performance returns in the past quarters. Analysts believe that the sector could experience a reversal of fortunes due to better demand and margin improvements.
Those interested in investing in gold have shifted to instruments, such as sovereign gold bonds and gold ETFs. Many others are, in fact, selling gold or using it as collateral to generate short-term liquidity.
Key drivers of profitability for Zomato has not witnessed remarkable growth, the management believes the venture will turn profitable in the long term.
From Covid-19 essentials, such as Vitamin C supplements and thermometers, to bicycles, laptops, and personal weighing scales, demand for certain items galloped during last financial year as the pandemic altered what Indians used on a day-to-day basis. Imports of outdoor sports equipment, handbags for women, and dentures, among others, plummeted. With outdoor activities coming to a halt last year and schools functioning virtually, imports of sports goods witnessed a decline, while inbound shipments of laptops and battery chargers saw a sharp uptick, according to the import data for the financial year 2020-21.
As large-scale layoffs begin at Facebook's parent company Meta, employees on work visas such as H-1Bs are now faced with uncertainty over their immigration status, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledging "this is especially difficult if you're here on a visa" and offering support to those impacted. Meta announced that it is laying off 11,000 employees or 13 per cent of its workforce, with Zuckerberg describing it as "some of the most difficult changes we've made in Meta's history." US-based technology companies hire a large amount of H-1B workers, the majority of whom come from countries such as India.
Those hardest hit by the second wave of the pandemic have been blue-collared workers, doctors and healthcare workers, law and order and municipal personnel, individuals eking out daily livelihood, and small businesses. And there should be more measures taken to alleviate their pain, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) said on Monday. The report also indicated that the RBI's growth numbers might have to be revisited as the central bank's real GDP growth projection of 26.2 per cent given in the MPC's resolution of April 7 for the first quarter of 2021-22, were "made before the full fury of the resurgence." Nevertheless, the "resurgence of COVID-19 has dented but not debilitated economic activity in the first half of Q1: 2021-22.
Ratings agency Crisil on Monday said the information technology sector is likely to lose its position as a mass employment engine and new recruitments will nearly halve over the next three years, even though companies will continue to report good revenue growth.
Prof Ananth Narayan, well known financial expert who works as a faculty member at the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research and the RBI's nominee director on the board of Yes Bank, expects a double-digit contraction in India's GDP this fiscal year. In the first of a two-part interview to Shobha Warrier/Rediff.com, Prof Narayan, below, says, "Giving liquidity and loan to cover the cash flow problem is not sufficient because you are essentially increasing the debt of many of these companies. And they might not be able to bear the burden."
Indian IT services sector's revenue growth will slow down to 3 per cent in the current fiscal from 9.2 per cent in the previous financial year, a domestic ratings company said on Tuesday. Icra Ratings said the profitability will also take a beating in this financial year and the operating profit margin will narrow by up to 1 percentage point to 20-21 per cent. The topline growth will come down to 3-5 per cent in FY24 from the 9.2 per cent posted in FY23, the agency said, attributing the slowdown to softening demand.
'People are doing a lot of trading.' 'Short-term euphoria can be seen.' 'Retail participation is best through MFs and PMS.'
While weather forecasters remain divided on how the monsoons will play out in India over the next few months, analysts believe the news at the current juncture - at best - can trigger a knee-jerk reaction in the markets. They believe it is too early to say whether the sub-par monsoon on account of El Nino can seriously dent the market sentiment in the short-to-medium term. "These are just initial forecasts and we will have another round / status update from the weather forecasters a month down the line.
Good growth in BFSI segment, favourable currency to aid the company in Dec quarter
Buoyed by stellar earnings in the September quarter, IT firm Cognizant said it will offer promotions for its employees at all levels up to managers.
IT stocks on Wednesday rose by as much as 3.4 per cent after Cognizant posted 15.4 per cent jump in net profit for the third quarter ended September 30, 2013 and revised its full year revenue target.
With raw material prices rising sequentially in Q4 FY23, margins of fast moving electrical goods (FMEG) companies could witness pressure as they refrain from hiking prices and demand remains soft. Transition to a new regulatory regime-fans moved to new BEE standards from January 1-poses additional risk for firms. Business depends on volume trends in summer for key sub-segments, which account for a significant chunk of the sector's overall sales pie.
Sikka has expanded the role of former SAP executive Ritika Suri.
The gauge for the performance of informational technology (IT) stocks soared nearly 5 per cent-most in nearly three years-as growth worries eased following a robust order book posted by bellwether Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The Nifty IT index rose 4.5 per cent to close at 30,945. This was the biggest single-day gain since September 14, 2020. Industry titan TCS' shares rose 5 per cent to Rs 3,509.
Double whammy for consumer firms, where the top line will remain subdued due to demonetisation and margins will squeeze owing to a crude oil spike and rupee depreciation, reports Viveat Susan Pinto/Business Standard from Mumbai.
Online travel firm MakeMyTrip's top executives Deep kalra and Rajesh Magow have decided to draw 'zero salary' from April 2020, while the rest of its leadership team will take a reduction of around 50 per cent in their compensation amid the covid-19 outbreak. Group Executive Chairman Deep Kalra and its group CEO Rajesh Magow have decided to take 'zero salary' from April 2020 as the company plans to undertake multiple "tough measures" to keep overall expenses at a minimum amid the covid-19 outbreak.
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'.
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.
Around 75 per cent, or 372 stocks, that are part of the BSE500 are trading at least 10 per cent below their all-time high levels, despite the index hitting a record high 20,515 points on the BSE in intra-day trade on Wednesday, surpassing its previous high of 20,390 touched in March 12. The index, which accounts for 93 per cent of BSE listed companies' market capitalisation, has gained 8 per cent from its recent low of 18,983, touched on April 19. In comparison, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex gained 6 per cent over the same period, but is still nearly 4.5 per cent away from its all-time high of 52,517 that it hit on February 16.
Terming the 23.9 per cent fall in economic growth in the June quarter alarming, former Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan has said bureaucracy should come out of complacency and take meaningful action. The current crisis requires a more thoughtful and active government, he said, adding, "Unfortunately, after an initial burst of activity, it seems to have retreated into a shell."
The country's largest software company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Wednesday said its net profit increased 8.7 per cent year-on-year to Rs 11,342 crore in the September 2023 quarter. The Tata Group flagship had reported a net profit of Rs 10,431 crore in the year-ago period.
'Although mid- and small-cap funds have the potential for higher growth, they come with inherent higher volatility.'
Declining interest rates, a near-normal monsoon leading to higher rural incomes and pay hikes for central government employees are key triggers, says Dev Chatterjee.
IT major Accenture's second straight cut in its revenue growth forecast for FY23 suggests there is more pain ahead for the Indian IT sector, say analysts. Accenture has lowered the top end of its FY23 growth guidance in constant currency (CC) to 9 per cent from 10 per cent earlier. The firm, which follows a September-August fiscal cycle, expects a 2-6 per cent CC growth in Q4 of FY23 (June-August 2023) versus the 6-10 per cent prior guidance.
'Kindling the private sector's animal spirits is more important than focusing on how government can give jobs on its own.'
Largest software exporter TCS will be hiring more than 40,000 freshers from campuses in the country in the financial year 2021-22 , a top executive said on Friday. The company, the largest employer in the private sector with a base of over 5 lakh employees, had hired 40,000 graduates from campuses last year and will do better on that number, its chief of global human resources Milind Lakkad told reporters in Mumbai. He said the COVID pandemic-related restrictions do not pose any difficulties in hiring and added that last year, a total of 3.60 lakh freshers had appeared for an entrance test virtually.
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