Infosys shares today surged nearly 6 per cent, buoyed by the company reporting a better-than-expected net profit at Rs 3,597 crore, up 16 per cent, in the fourth-quarter and a strong revenue growth forecast for the current fiscal.
The scrip of the country’s second-largest IT services company jumped 5.70 per cent to end at Rs 1,238.80 on BSE. During the day, it soared 8.17 per cent to Rs 1,267.90, its 52-week high.
On NSE, the stock climbed 5.62 per cent to close at Rs 1,238.70. Led by a rally in the stock, the company’s market valuation advanced by Rs 15,332.5 crore to Rs 2,84,545.50 crore. On volume front, 7.54 lakh shares of the company were traded at BSE and over one crore shares changed hands at NSE during the day. The stock was the top gainer among the blue-chips on the Sensex and the Nifty.
“Infosys FY17 constant currency revenue guidance at 11.5-13.5 per cent has come ahead of expectations,” said Govind Agarwal, Research Analyst-Institutional Equities, Prabhudas Lilladher.
The consolidated net profit at Rs 3,597 crore in January-March was 16.2 per cent higher than Rs 3,097 crore in the same period of 2014-15, the company had said in a statement on Friday.
Turnover of the company rose 23.4 per cent to Rs 16,550 crore in the fourth quarter of the last fiscal.
On a sequential basis, Infosys’ net profit rose 3.8 per cent from Rs 3,465 crore in the October-December quarter while revenue was up 4.1 per cent from Rs 15,902 crore during the same period.
Infosys said sales will rise between 11.8 per cent and 13.8 per cent in the US dollar terms in 2016-17 that began on April 1. Revenue, it added, will grow between 11.5 per cent and 13.5 per cent in constant currency terms, indicating a faster growth rate than the industry average as the company shifts to high-margin digital services business.
Industry body Nasscom had in February forecast a 10-12 per cent growth for the IT and software services exports in 2016-17.
Meanwhile, buying was also seen in other IT stocks like HCL Technologies which rose 1.85 per cent, Tech Mahindra (1.19 per cent), Hexaware Technologies (0.82 per cent) and Wipro (0.78 per cent).
The BSE IT index gained 3.09 per cent to end at 11,632.22.
Solid buying in Infosys shares also fuelled rally in the broader market where the benchmark index went up by 189.61 points to end at 25,816.36.
PTI