'The biggest near-term risk to Indian equities is the outflow of investments to China as tactical trades by foreign investors.'
rediffGURU Chocko Valliappa offers advice on how you can pick the right course and career.
ICICI Bank, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, NTPC, JSW Steel, State Bank of India and Adani Ports were the other big gainers. Asian Paints, Nestle, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Hindustan Unilever, Infosys and ITC were the other big laggards.
These 10 stocks represent the best mix of value and growth, offering relatively low price-to-earnings and price-to-book ratios, a high return on equity, and sufficiently high potential from current levels.
The Rs 702-crore IPO received bids for 2,93,41,84,140 shares against the total issue size of 2,32,59,550 shares, according to data available till 3.30 pm on Wednesday.
The revenue growth of Indian companies for the July-September quarter is estimated to be 5-7 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y), marking the slowest growth in 16 quarters, rating agency CRISIL said on Thursday.
Fear of a recession in the US due to rising unemployment has added to the concerns of India's IT services sector, which was seeing some growth returning after Q1FY25 results. The Nifty IT closed 3.26 per cent down, as major IT services companies' stock value fell. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's largest IT services firm, saw its stock price fall 4 per cent during intraday trading.
Airbus will increase sourcing of components from India, which offers plenty of opportunities, according to the aircraft maker's CEO Guillaume Faury. The European major, which has bagged huge aircraft orders from IndiGo and Air India, doubled its sourcing of components and services from India to 1 billion euros during the period from 2019-2023, he said.
From the 30 Sensex firms, Bajaj Finance, Reliance Industries, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Tech Mahindra, Tata Motors, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Maruti were the biggest laggards. Reliance Industries Ltd, India's most valuable company, on Monday reported a 5 per cent fall in the July-September quarter net profit as weak oil refining and petrochemical business hurt operational performance. ICICI Bank, Bharti Airtel, Asian Paints, Adani Ports, UltraTech Cement and HCL Technologies were among the gainers.
If growth reverts to the pre-Covid level, a lot of people may have to temper their rosy optimism, points out Debashis Basu.
India's second largest IT services company Infosys has been slapped with a 'pre-show cause' notice for alleged GST evasion to the tune of about Rs 32,403 crore. In a BSE filing, the Bengaluru headquartered IT firm said Karnataka State GST authorities have issued a pre-show cause notice for payment of GST of Rs 32,403 crores for the period July 2017 to March 2022, towards the expenses incurred by overseas branch offices of Infosys Ltd, and added that the company has responded to the pre-show cause notice.
The good news is that salary hikes are expected, though it is uncertain when they will be implemented.
With clients increasingly looking at cost optimisation by passing on the risks to the IT vendors and IT services players demanding longer tenure deals to hedge their risks, a mix of these two factors are giving rise to large deals coming up in the market with a lot of strings attached.
The second-quarter performance of the top five information-technology services firms gives the hint that slow growth has bottomed out on the back of discretionary spending kicking in for the sector's largest vertical - the banking and financial services. However, concern about the macro-environment continues to be a challenge. Among the top four - Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Infosys, HCLTech, and Wipro - it is Bengaluru-based Infosys that has performed the best and that was evident in its full-year revenue guidance.
India Inc continued to grapple with muted revenue growth in the September 2024 quarter (Q2FY25) and witnessed a decline in margins and profits. The headwinds were especially severe for non-financial companies, while banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) firms significantly outpaced the rest of the corporate sector. The total profit of 1,353 listed companies that have released their Q2FY25 results thus far dropped by 0.6 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) - the first cumulative earnings decline in eight quarters.
For Paris-headquartered IT services major Capgemini, India has always been the backbone of its services delivery for its global clients, but the company is focused on driving more value from India as it gears up its engineering research and development (R&D) presence worldwide with its acquisition of Altran Technologies. The company, which has about 149,000 employees in India, is looking to hire 60,000 associates this year. Of them, 30,000 will be recruits from campuses and the rest lateral entrants. For Ashwin Yardi, chief executive officer India, Capgemini, the focus is to make sure that the India unit is aligned with the global plans of repositioning the company as a hub of engineering R&D, operational technology, and IT.
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.
Framing the next chapter in Swiggy's journey as a responsible corporate citizen, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Sriharsha Majety unveiled the company's eagerly awaited public listing. Majety, who has largely shunned the spotlight, shared reflections on his entrepreneurial path and the strategic pivots he and his co-founders navigated in building Swiggy. "We started with code aggregation, then pivoted to logistics, and that became Swiggy.
In previews of Q2FY25 and beyond, industry analysts are expecting a turnaround for IT services. High teens earnings per share or EPS growth is expected for the next two-three financial years. The hopes are backed by deal wins of above $100 billion as at Q1FY25, up 16.6 per cent year-on-year ( Y-o-Y).
'GenAI programmes may not be large in terms of value, but have triggered a lot of new opportunities among clients.'
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.
According to Nasscom, engineering services exports had grown at 13 per cent in 2017 compared to six per cent rise in IT services exports and eight per cent in business process management (BPM). It had also recorded the highest growth in the last three years, reports Debasis Mohapatra.
Benchmark Sensex closed above the 85,000 level for the first time while Nifty scaled the 26,000 peak at close on Wednesday as fag-end buying in banking and power shares helped stock markets recoup early losses. After a see-saw trade during the day, the 30-share BSE Sensex rose by 255.83 points or 0.30 per cent to settle at an all-time high of 85,169.87. During the day, it surged 333.38 points or 0.39 per cent to hit a record intra-day peak of 85,247.42.
India's largest IT services firm TCS on Thursday reported a 4.99 per cent increase in its September quarter net profit at Rs 11,909 crore. The Tata Group company had reported a net profit of Rs 11,342 crore in the year-ago period, while in the preceding quarter, it had a post tax net of Rs 12,040 crore, a company filing said.
India's largest IT services company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on Thursday posted an 8.7 per cent year-on-year rise in its consolidated net profit at Rs 12,040 crore in the first quarter ended June 2024. The net profit for the year-ago period stood at Rs 11,074 crore.
IT services major HCL Technologies (HCLTech) on Monday reported a 10.51 per cent increase in consolidated net profit to Rs 4,235 crore in July-September quarter of FY25, as the company raised the lower band of its growth guidance on the back of better-than-expected performance. The Noida-headquartered firm had posted a net profit of Rs 3,832 crore in the year-ago period. HCLTech increased the lower band of its revenue growth guidance to 3.5-5 per cent year-on-year in constant currency, against a guidance of 3-5 per cent in the first quarter.
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.
Fresher hiring, which has been subdued as Indian information technology (IT) services firms scaled back their recruitment, is set for a turnaround. The IT sector's fresher hiring is expected to rise by 20-25 per cent for 2024-25 (FY25). Additionally, the global capability centres are projected to boost their fresher hiring by 40 per cent compared to last year, according to a TeamLease Digital analysis.
Management commentary on demand environment, and forward guidance will be in focus when Indian IT services players declare their September quarter results for financial year 2024-25 (Q2FY25). The industry is exepected to have continued on the path of recovery in Q2, similar to the preceding quarter, rather than sprint towards growth. The top four firms likely grew between 0 per cent and 4 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y), according to consensus estimates.
Squeezing growth prospects in IT services firms and higher compensation in technology centres run by global companies are the two factors driving this trend.
Infosys Ltd on Thursday reported a 4.7 per cent rise in the September quarter net profit and raised revenue guidance after broadbased growth. Net profit of Rs 6,506 crore in July-September was up 4.7 per cent when compared to Rs 6,212 crore earnings in the same period last year. It was 2.2 per cent higher quarter-on-year, according to a company statement.
'With Prime, TCS is making sure that we are able to secure the right high talent...' 'Colleges will make sure that students who are offered jobs in this category do not go for another company's hiring process.'
Two years after winding up its India production, global automobile giant Ford Motor Company is in talks with the Tamil Nadu government to restart operations at Maraimalai Nagar near Chennai, where it will focus on exports. Chief Minister Stalin visited Ford headquarters in Michigan on Tuesday and held discussions with its top management, urging it to restart production. "Had a very engaging discussion with the team from Ford Motors.
The IT giant has reported a decline in headcount for six consecutive quarters.
Reliance Industries Ltd on Monday reported a 5 per cent fall in the net profit for the July-September quarter, as weak oil refining and petrochemical business hurt operational performance.
'Today's engineering graduates have to learn the skills to solve problems which is actually a higher order skill.'
The Tata Group is one of the very few Indian MNCs which has carved out a niche in China's highly competitive market, notes Rup Narayan Das.
According to several industry sources in the know, expenses towards deploying contractual staffer, which used to account 10 per cent of the overall billable employee cost at IT firms, has fallen to around 3 per cent. IT firms typically use the contractual workers from staffing solutions providers or subcontractors.
The government is set to examine concerns over quick commerce companies potentially undermining businesses of local kirana stores, particularly in the context of the draft Digital Competition Bill, according to official sources. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs recently raised the issue with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs during discussions around the proposed legislation. "We need to assess if and how the Bill can address these concerns and explore further steps to include provisions to keep a check," a senior official stated.
Despite higher gross additions, growth in overall customer base has been tepid for these companies, says Debasis Mohapatra.
