Infosys | SilverScorpio.Com

UPDATE 1- HCL Tech net up 3.7 pct, shares rise

July 30, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

July 29 (Reuters) – Software services firm HCL Technologies (HCLT.BO) said on Thursday its quarterly net income rose marginally as demand for outsourcing increased, sending its shares up by as much as 4 percent.

Net income rose 3.7 percent to 3.42 billion rupees for April-June quarter, while sales increased 18 percent to 34.25 billion rupees.

Indian software companies are benefitting from a pickup in after services spending in the U.S., the largest market for the sector, after the global economic downturn.

“With hedge losses almost behind us we would see further improvement in cash flows and continued strengthening of the balance sheet,” Anil Chanana, CFO, said in a statement.

HCL’s larger rival India’s NO. 1 IT firm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS.BO) and third-largest Wipro (WIPR.BO) earlier reported street-topping performances, while No. 2 Infosys (INFY.BO) posted a surprise fall in quarterly profit.

HCL’s net income increased 6.9 percent on year to $73.6 million and revenue rose 21.5 percent to $737.6 million under US accounting norms. The EBITDA margin fell to 18.6 percent in the June-quarter from 22.1 percent a year ago.

US contributed 58.9 percent, Europe 28.5 percent and Asia Pacific 12.6 percent to HCL’s revenue in the June quarter.

Europe, which has been a cause of concern for most exporters in India and is the second-biggest market for the $60 billion Indian outsourcing sector after the United States, grew 4 percent over the March-quarter in terms of revenue for HCL.

Research firm Forrester said in a report this month that Europe’s volatile economic situation and uncertainty about corporate IT budgets would result in possible delays or cancellations of some outsourcing projects.

Custom application (industry solution) and Enterprise application services contributed together more than half of HCL’s revenue in the June quarter.

HCL, among India’s top five software services firm, added 6,428 employees in the June quarter taking its total headcount to 64,557, it said in a statement.

Rising outsourcing demand has seen Indian IT firms boosting hiring and raising staff salaries as they battle intensifying competition from global rivals such as IBM (IBM.N) and Accenture (ACN.N).

HCL’s net debt came down to $36 million as on June ’10 from $221 million a year ago.

At 9.51 local time, shares in HCL Technologies (HCLT.BO), which the market values at about $5.5 billion, were trading up 4.08 percent at 388 rupees in a flat Mumbai market.

(Reporting by Sanjeev Choudhary; Editing by Ramya Venugopal)

((sanjeev.choudhary@thomsonreuters.com; +91 11 4178 1016; Reuters Messaging: sanjeev.choudhary.reuters.com@reuters.net))

((If you have a query or comment on this story, send an email to news.feedback.asia@thomsonreuters.com)) Keywords: HCL TECH/

(C) Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution ofReuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expresslyprohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuterssphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group ofcompanies around the world.nSGE66R0DZ

West Bengal Government revives IT hub plans

September 17, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Kolkata, Sep 17(ANI): West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya on Thursday said that the Government would revive plans to build a one billion dollar IT hub, which was earlier, scrapped due to land acquisition problems.

The State Government has planned an IT town on the outskirts of Kolkata to host IT giants Wipro and Infosys, and following the issue Bhattacharya said that IT majors, Wipro and Infosys would be given 45 acres of land each near the airport, where they can construct new centres.

“We are ready to give 45 acres of land each to Wipro and Infosys and they can come and immediately take possession of the land and they can start constructing their new centres in Rajarhat, 45 acres each and they are big companies and they will create huge job opportunities for young people,” Bhattacharya said.

The State Government had earlier cancelled the project after local police arrested a member of a private business consortium, which had offered to procure land for the IT hub on behalf of the Government, on charges of seizing the land by force. (ANI)

Filed Under: Business News Tagged With: acquisition problems, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, business consortium, Chief Minister, dollar, giants, hub, infosys, job opportunities, majors, one billion, outskirts, possession, private business, state government, west bengal government, Wipro.

West Bengal Government scraps Rajarhat IT park project

September 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Kolkata, Sep.7 (ANI): The West Bengal government on Monday scrapped plans for an IT-related township in the Rajarhat area near Salt Lake City in the wake of a land scam involving land sharks and government officials.

The State Government had revealed last month that it had acquired land for the Infosys and Wipro complexes.

The state Cabinet went far beyond the waiving aside of the urban land ceiling to enable promoters procure the rest of the land. The government also promised to facilitate the process of land conversion (from agricultural to non-agricultural). Clause 5.51 under Section D of the MoU clearly states that Webel shall enable the joint venture company to get all clearance and “applicable permits” under the law, including “conversion of land”.

The government stayed away from procuring land on its own. Instead, it gave the JVC a long rope and agreed on getting land from this company on lease, leaving 600 acres to the private partners for commercial use. Not only that, the private promoters set the terms for Webel’s activities on the leasehold land. Clause 4.6 of the MoU states: “With a view to meet the requirement of small IT companies for built-up space, if Webel intends to develop IT parks, the Joint Venture partner Vedic Diamond will be given the first right of refusal to develop such facilities.”

Nobody attempted a cost benefit analysis important for a public purpose project.(ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Analysis, ANI, area, benefit, cabinet, ceiling, clause, clearance, company, conversion, cost, Cost Benefit Analysis, diamond, First Right Of Refusal, Government, government officials, infosys, IT-related, joint, joint venture company, jvc, Kolkata, land, Land Conversion, land scam, land sharks, law, lease, leasehold, Leasehold Land, Monday, month, mou, nobody, park, partner, Private Partners, Private Promoters, process, project, Public Purpose, purpose, Rajarhat, refusal, requirement, rest, right, Right Of Refusal, rope, salt lake city, scam, section, Sep, space, state, state cabinet, township, urban land, use, vedic, venture, venture partner, view, wake, Webel, west bengal, west bengal government, Wipro.

RIL’s Jamnagar refinery to get CISF security cover

August 30, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Aug 30 (ANI): Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has decided to get the security cover from the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) for its Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat.

RIL’s Jamnagar refinery, is world’s biggest Greenfield refinery

According to sources, the RIL has conveyed its decision to the Union Home Ministry that they are now keen to take the CISF security cover. The CISF personnel are likely to be deployed in Jamnagar by September.

Though the Home Ministry has cleared the request of the RIL a couple of months ago, but the RIL has sought time to reconsider its decision, sources added.

The RIL is the second private company to get protection from the CISF after the Central Government’s announcement that the central police forces would be available for guarding private installations.

The software major Infosys is the first private company to have a security cover from CISF. The central police force is giving the protection to Infosys head office in Bangalore since July.

The officials of the CISF carried out exhaustive survey of the refinery and decided to provide 100 personnel for it. Besides guarding, the CISF is likely to assist RIL in training the company’s security personnel, sources said. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: ambani, ANI, announcement, Aug, Bangalore, Central Government, Central Industrial, central industrial security, Central Industrial Security Force Cisf, CISF, company, couple, cover, decision, force, greenfield, Gujarat, head, home, infosys, Jamnagar, Jamnagar Refinery, July, ltd, ministry, Mukesh, New Delhi, office, police, police force, police forces, private company, protection, refinery, Reliance, Reliance Industries, reliance industries ltd, reliance industries ltd ril, request, RIL, security, security force, security personnel, September, software, survey, time, union, Union Home Ministry, world

More intellectuals to be involved in process of governance: PM

July 11, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

On Board special flight, July 11 (ANI): Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh has said that Nandan Nilekani’s appointment has been widely welcomed and there would be involvement of more and more top intellectuals in process of governance.

Addressing a press conference onboard after attending the G8-G5 summit at L’Aquila in Italy, Dr. Singh said, “I would like to involve more and more intellectuals in the process of governance in our country. In due course of time, we could enlarge this process. We need all the wisdom, knowledge and experience.”

“There is enormous reserve of wisdom, knowledge and experience outside the political system. It has to be harnessed in the service of Indian people. It will be my effort to do so at a pace which it does not have side effect,” he added.

Nilekani left Infosys on July 9 to serve as the chairperson of the Unique Identification Authority of India, in the rank of a cabinet minister under invitation from Dr. Singh.

In January, the Government of India has notified the creation of the National Authority of Unique Identity.

The ambitious plan of unique identification has been allocated Rs 100 crore in the interim budget of 2009-10.

The unique identification number aims at eliminating the need for multiple identification mechanism prevalent across various government departments, and it will ensure that each Indian citizen will carry a permanent identifier from birth to death. By Naveen Kapoor (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: ambitious plan, aquila, cabinet minister, chairperson, crore, Dr Singh, Dr. Manmohan Singh, enormous reserve, governance, government departments, government of india, indian citizen, infosys, intellectuals, interim budget, invitation, manmohan, Manmohan Singh, Nandan Nilekani, Prime Minister

Pitroda, Murthy and S Ramadorai considered for Air India’s top management spots

July 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, July 8 (ANI): The Civil Aviation Ministry is reportedly considering the names of Sam Pitroda, Narayana Murthy and S Ramadorai, who are top entrepreneurs and technocrats, for reviving Air India in order to bring high quality people of great integrity and proven track record in business.

These names would be considered as part of Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel’s plans of a major revamp of the national carrier’s top management, which would be carried out in next 30 days in a bid to turn around cash-strapped Air India in the next two years.

“Our minister has already initiated the process. These names will be finalised soon,” a news channel quoted a top official said.

Sam Pitroda is an inventor, entrepreneur and policymaker. Currently chairman of National Knowledge Commission, he is also widely considered to have been responsible for India’s communications revolution.

While, Narayana Murthy is an industrialist, software engineer and one of the seven founders of Infosys Technologies, a global consulting and IT services company based in India and Subramaniam Ramadorai is the CEO and Managing Director of Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, a major IT company in the country.

“Ramadorai’s name has already been cleared for the role of functional director. Talks are on with the others as well. As many as seven new directors may be inducted as per plans,” the source added.

According to sources, the entire top management of Air India, which is under a loan liability of Rs 15,000 crore, would be recast in the next 30 days. Several old time directors might be asked to leave and a Professional Chief Operating Officer will be appointed under the Chairman and Managing Director. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: air, ANI, aviation, bid, business, carrier, ceo, chairman, channel, Chief, civil, commission, company, Consultancy, consulting, country, crore, director, engineer, entrepreneur, India, industrialist, infosys, integrity, inventor, July, knowledge, liability, loan, ltd, management, managing, minister, ministry, murthy, name, Narayana, national, New Delhi, NEWS, officer, official, operating, order, part, patel, Pitroda, Policymaker, praful, process, professional, quality, Ramadorai, recast, record, revolution, role, sam, software, source, subramaniam, TATA, time, track

Narayana Murthy praises General Budget

July 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Bangalore, July 7 (ANI): Chairman and chief mentor of the Infosys Technologies Ltd NR Narayana Murthy has said the General Budget will bring the economy back on rails.

Addressing reporters here on Monday, Murthy expressed confidence that the budget was pro-growth.

“Given the fact that they have increased allocation to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act scheme, to national food security scheme, to highways, to education, they have something for everybody, something in every area. So, I do think this has pretty good chance of bringing economy back on rails,” Murthy said.

The government ramped up spending for this fiscal year to support a fragile economic recovery, spooking stock and bond markets with plans for record borrowing and the biggest budget deficit in 16 years.

Investors had hoped the new government would use a strong re-election mandate to push through pro-market reforms, but the budget it unveiled lacked major policy changes and focused on increased borrowing and spending to aid farmers and the poor.

Stocks tumbled nearly six per cent, bond yields spiked and the rupee fell 1.4 per cent after Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, sticking to the Congress Party’s theme of “inclusive growth”, said the fiscal deficit for the year ending March 2010 would increase to 6.8 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: act, allocation, ANI, area, Bangalore, Bond, borrowing, budget, cent, chairman, chance, confidence, Congress, deficit, economy, Education, employment, everybody, fact, finance, food, gdp, General Budget, Government, growth, guarantee, infosys, July, ltd, mandate, March, mentor, minister, Monday, Mukherjee, murthy, Narayana, national, party, percent, policy, pranab, product, re-election, record, recovery, rupee, rural, scheme, security, something, spending, stock, theme, year

Sensex gains 155 points in early trade

June 27, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Mumbai June 25 (ANI) :Influenced by the buying of funds and positive trends in the other Asian markets the Bombay stock exchange (BSE) share index rose up by over 155 points during the first trade.

The Sensex, which has added 98 more points to its tally yesterday, gained 155.73 points at 14,578.46 in the first five minutes after the opening of the market.imilarly, the National Stock Exchange’s (NSE) index also moved up by 45 points. The Reliance Industries and Infosys, are the gainers during the first trade. (ANI)

Filed Under: Business News Tagged With: Asian markets, bombay stock exchange, bse, first five minutes, gainers, infosys, Mumbai, national stock exchange, Nse Index, Reliance Industries, Sensex, sensex gains, share index, tally

Sensex fall by 309 points

June 23, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Mumbai June 23(ANI): Due to the heavy selling of funds and weak global trends the benchmark Sensex of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) registered a fall of over 309 points in the opening trade.

The index, which suffered 195 points yesterday, fell further by 309.27 points.

The Nifty of National Stock Exchange (NSE) also followed the trends and suffered 92 points in opening trade to start at 4,143.25.

Tycoons like Reliance Industries and Infosys were the heavy sufferers in today’s trading. (ANI)

Filed Under: Business News Tagged With: benchmark, bombay stock exchange, bse, global trends, infosys, june 23, Mumbai, national stock exchange, Nifty, nse, Reliance Industries, S Trading, Sensex, sensex fall, Tycoons

Five Infosys employees killed in Belgaum bus accident

May 21, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Bangalore, May 21 (ANI): Five employees of the Infosys were killed and eight others injured when their bus overturned in Belgaum District of Karnataka on Tuesday.

The incident occurred when the driver of the bus in which they were travelling lost control while negotiating a sharp curve.

According to police, the deceased were on their way to Pune after finishing training.

The bus was carrying a total of 43 passengers. All the injured were admitted to the KLE hospital in Belgaum.

The deceased have been identified as Tushar Aggarwal, Agnivesh (Bihar), Ankita (Delhi), Rakshit Malhotra, (Noida). The fifth person is yet to be identified. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: accident, Aggarwal, Agnivesh, ANI, Ankita, Bangalore, Belgaum District, Bihar, bus, Bus Accident, control, curve, deceased, Delhi, driver, Fifth Person, hospital, incident, infosys, Karnataka, KLE, malhotra, May, noida, person, Pune, Rakshit, total, training, Tuesday, Tushar, way

Oz firm Westpac reverses move to end India offshore operations

May 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Sydney, May 18 (ANI): Australian bank WESTPAC has dispatched a strike team to India as part of an offshoring reconnaissance mission a week after the bank’s chief, Gail Kelly, drew widespread praise for suspending the practice of sending jobs overseas.

The Australian understands the bank’s top technology executives have travelled around India over the past two weeks to meet with about eight outsourcing companies.

Two outsourcers will be selected to perform a range of work and are set to benefit as WESTPAC spends hundreds of millions of dollars over the next couple of years to update core banking systems and integrate complex technology functions as part of the 12 billion dollar acquisition of St George bank.

Several sources confirmed the WESTPAC contingent met with technology firms Accenture, IBM, EDS, Wipro Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services and INFOSYS, as well as one or two others.

A fortnight ago Ms Kelly announced she had put the brakes on WESTPAC’S offshoring of Australian-based jobs, a decision prompted by the recession and expectations that unemployment could rise next year to 8.5 per cent.

WESTPAC declined to comment on the visit to India or the bank’s future offshoring plans. (ANI)

Filed Under: Business News Tagged With: Accenture, Banking Systems, complex technology, Core Banking, fortnight, gail kelly, infosys, offshore operations, outsourcers, outsourcing companies, recession, reconnaissance mission, st george bank, tata consultancy services, technology executives, Technology Firms, technology functions, top technology, westpac, wipro technologies

Stock Mkts To Witness Selling Pressure On Monday, Says Alex Mathew

April 20, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

While commenting on the market performance of the day, Alex Mathew head, research centre – Geojit Financial Services stated that the stock markets belled the day in green on account of optimistic prompts coming in from the worldwide markets and dealt robustly all the morning session but capitalists cashed in on the gains produced during the morning session that occurred in the noon session earlier than the weekend and marked its closure in green but off the days` low.

During the afternoon trading, European markets that started optimistically moved in a subdued direction as it was awaiting outcomes of major business houses including Carrefour and Sony Ericsson passing less support to Indian stock markets.

On the positive side, the markets rallied during the morning trade with real estate, bankex and capital goods heading the rally on the hope of interest rate cut from the part of Reserve Bank Of India (RBI).

The stock markets broke up during the last trading hour bringing the stock markets into the pessimistic region and came to a close in green with Sensex up 0.69% and Nifty in contrast was up 0.44%. On the sectoral front, the top gainers list included Realty, which gained 3.13%, Bankex up 2.93%, IT up 2.92%, Capital Goods up 2.57% and Technology up 2.04%.

FMCG closed the day after losing 0.64%, while Oil was down by 0.29%.

On Nifty, the top performers included Unitech, which was up by 21.99%, Axis Bank up 6.6%, HCLTech up 5.61%, L and T up 4.47% and Infosys up 3.87%.

The losers comprised Hindalco, which lost 4.84%, TISCO down 4.05%, Cipla down 3.83%, SAIL down 3.78% and Sterlite down 3.22%.

Alex Mathew opined, “For Nifty the major support is there at 3,214 (10 day exponential moving average). If selling continuous on Monday then Ranbaxy, Sail, ACC, M and M are good for taking short positions especially Ranbaxy if it trades below 181 then it may test 170 and 160.”

“Volumes were on the higher side due to portfolio churning by the institutional investors. The 5 week relative strength index (RSI) still remains in the overbought region, so one may see further sell off,” he added.

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: acc, account, afternoon, Alex Mathew, Axis, axis bank, bank, bank of india, Bankex, business, business houses, capital, Capital Goods, Carrefour, centre, Cipla, close, closure, contrast, cut, day, direction, ericsson, estate, European Markets, exponential, Exponential Moving Average, financial, FMCG, front, Geojit, goods, HCLTech, head, Hindalco, hope, hour, index, India, Indian Stock Markets, infosys, interest, list, M, market, market performance, MKTS, Monday, morning, morning session, Nifty, noon, Noon Session, oil, part, performance, portfolio, pressure, rally, ranbaxy, rate, RBI, realty, region, Research, reserve, Reserve Bank of India, RSI, SAIL, sectoral, selling, Sensex, session, side, sony, Sterlite, stock, strength, support, Technology, test, TISCO, Top Gainers, trade, trading, unitech, volumes, week, weekend, witness, worldwide, Worldwide Markets

Domestic BPO companies in Rajasthan unaffected by recession

April 18, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Jaipur, Apr 18 (ANI): In Rajasthan, the Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies dealing in domestic market have not been affected by the economic slowdown so far.

Most of the domestic BPO companies here are dealing in telecom, power, banking, financial and government sectors. According to the market players, these sectors have not been affected by the ongoing recessionary trends, which is why there is enough buoyancy in local BPO market.

“We are yet to see a decline in domestic market. Inspite of recession there are few things that have demand. For example everybody requires power. It may be possible that someone doesn’t use AC much but he will need power still. Demand of power is going to remain there, “explained Ajay Datta, CEO, Data Infosys Ltd.

“Demand of food is going to remain there. Somebody may reduce one chapatti in meal but he will need that. So call centers of these business segments and segments like telecom have no impact of recession. Any company depending on domestic market is doing well. Companies depending on international market are facing the impact of recession,” added Datta.

The local BPO market is extensive as there is investment of approximately Rs. 600 million in this sector. There are around 30 to 35 BPO companies with a workforce of around 8000 in the state and most of these are in the capital Jaipur.

Even the employees working in domestic BPO companies have no fear of losing their jobs.

“As far as the local job scenario is concerned, especially in this Rajashthan based company, I think that you are quiet safe as compared to MNCs because recession comes from USA and directly hits the Multinational Company’s. So as far as the local companies and local organisations are concerned, we don’t have any problem,” said Pushpendra, a BPO executive of Data Infosys Ltd.

The market players, however, despite of being confident of the business, say that they have put on hold further investment plans. By Lokendra Singh (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Ajay Datta, ANI, Apr, banking, bpo, Bpo Companies, buoyancy, business, business process outsourcing, business segments, call, call centers, ceo, chapatti, company, data, datta, decline, demand, domestic, economic slowdown, everybody, example, executive, fear, food, Government, Government Sectors, hold, impact, infosys, inspite, investment, Investment Plans, jaipur, job, Local Companies, Lokendra, ltd, market, meal, mncs, Multinational, Multinational Company, need, organisations, outsourcing, power, problem, process, Pushpendra, Rajashthan, Rajasthan, recession, safe, scenario, sector, Singh, slowdown, somebody, someone, state, telecom, Telecom Power, USA, workforce

SNAPSHOT – Financial Crisis – 0630 GMT

April 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

NEWS

– UBS (UBSN.VX) will post a Q1 loss and cut 8,700 more
jobs, says chief executive

– China’s annual GDP growth slips to record low in Q1, but
quarter-on quarter increase may point to a recovery

– Infosys issues downbeat forecast in dollar earnings for
2009/10

– Intel beats earnings forecasts, says thinks Q1 computer
sales hit bottom, but no Q2 revenue outlook sent shares down
4.6 percent after-hours

– Yahoo Inc (YHOO.O) is preparing to lay off several
hundred workers – source

– South Korea cuts 2009 export and import targets

– Thailand may expand stimulus package and increase
borrowing to boost confidence and deal with economic costs of
turmoil

MARKETS

– Asia stocks pulls back from six-month highs; MSCI index
of shares ex-Japan down 1.1 percent, Nikkei sheds 0.8 percent

– European futures point to a lower opening, weighed by
losses on Wall Street and in Asia

– Yen and the U.S. dollar gain as optimism about recovery
ebbs

– Oil hovers above $49 a barrel

QUOTES

“The realities of a still anemic housing market, extremely
weak and arguably worsening labor market conditions, and higher
credit costs have once again translated into the appalling
reality of consumers cutting back. ” – Lindsey Piegza, economic
analyst at FTN Financial in New York.

“What happens over the next few years, at least, is highly
uncertain. ” – Luci Ellis, the head of the Reserve Bank of
Australia’s Financial Stability Department. “Confidence in the
financial system remains fragile.”

DIARY

(all times GMT)

WEDNESDAY, April 15

WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve releases Beige Book survey of
U.S. economic conditions

(World Desk, Singapore +1 202 898 8482)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: analyst, April, asia, Asia Stocks, Australia, bank, Bank Of Australia, barrel, beige, Beige Book, book, Book Survey, borrowing, bottom, China, Computer, Computer Sales, confidence, credit, crisis, deal, department, desk, diary, dollar, Dollar Gain, Earnings Forecasts, Economic Analyst, economic costs, ellis, ex, executive, export, federal, financial, financial stability, forecast, FTN, Ftn Financial, gain, gdp, GDP growth, gmt, growth, head, housing, import, inc, increase, index, infosys, intel, Japan, Labor, Lindsey Piegza, loss, Luci, market, markets, msci, New York, NEWS, Nikkei, oil, opening, optimism, outlook, package, percent, point, Q1 Loss, Q2 Revenue Outlook, quarter, quotes, reality, recovery, reserve, Reserve Bank of Australia, revenue, Singapore, snapshot, source, South Korea, stability, stimulus, stimulus package, survey, system, Thailand, turmoil, UBS, UBSN, US, Wall Street, Washington, Wednesday, world, World Desk, Yahoo, yen, Yhoo

Sensex tests 11K level, closes higher for seventh consecutive day

April 14, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

The Indian stock markets remained buoyant and close higher on Monday, for the seventh consecutive day, after an intraday volatile session.

During trading session, the Sensex surpassed the 11,000 mark while the Nifty tested the 3,400 level. BSE Sensex settled the day at 10,967, up 163 points or 1.51%, and Nifty ended up 40 points or 1.21% to 3,382.

Further, BSE Mid Caps and Small Caps also ended the day with gains of 106.57 and 147.61 points at 3,464.92 and 3,915.16 respectively.

The domestic market opened on Monday, on green territory backed by positive cues from the global markets. However, benchmark indices soon turned volatile on profit booking by investors.

But during mid-afternoon hours, the resumption of buying by the foreign funds led buying interest back in the domestic bourses. In addition, the firm cues from the global markets also contributed to the upward journey of Sensex.

On sectoral front, Metal, Bank, Reality, PSU, Auto, Capital Goods and Power stocks attracted most of the buying. While, segments like consumer durable and IT stocks witnessed heavy selling in select counters.

The list of gainers from the BSE Sensex pack included Tata Motors (12.01%), Tata Steel (8.31%), Sterlite Industries (7.39%), SBI (6.80%), DLF Ltd (5.04%), HDFC Bank (4.84%), ICICI Bank (4.49%), RCom (3.49%), M and M Ltd (3.39%) and JP Associates (3.25%).

While, the losers from the BSE Sensex pack were TCS Ltd (1.91%), Wipro Ltd (1.90%), Grasim Indus (1.59%), HUL (1.33%), Infosys Tech (1.22%), NTPC Ltd (1.00%) and HDFC (0.99%).

The Indian stock market will remain close on tomorrow i.e. Tuesday (14th April 2009) for Dr. Ambedkar Jayanti.

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: addition, Afternoon Hours, Ambedkar Jayanti, April, auto, Auto Capital, bank, benchmark, booking, bse, BSE Sensex, buying, capital, Capital Goods, caps, Consumer, Consumer Durable, day, dlf, Domestic Bourses, Dr Ambedkar, firm, front, global markets, goods, grasim, hdfc, Hul, ICICI, Indian Stock Market, Indian Stock Markets, Indus, infosys, interest, intraday, jayanti, journey, level, list, ltd, mark, market, metal, mid, Mid Caps, Monday, Nifty, NTPC, pack, power, Power Stocks, profit, profit booking, psu, RCom, reality, resumption, sbi, sectoral, selling, Sensex, session, Small, small caps, Steel, Sterlite, stock, TATA, Tata Motors, Tata Steel, TCS, Tech, territory, tomorrow, trading, Trading Session, Tuesday, Upward Journey, wipro ltd, Wipro.

Foreign owners in Sensex pack down 16%

April 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

The sharp downturn in the capital market during calendar year 2008 has resulted in the foreign ownership of Sensex companies declining to 16% by the end of December 2008 from 18% recorded during the first quarter of 2008. While foreign institutional investors (FII) chose to reduce their exposure significantly in companies like ACC, Grasim, Hindalco, Ranbaxy, LandT, and Reliance Communication, they have almost maintained or increased their ownership in stocks like HDFC Bank, ITC, Infosys, TCS and Wipro.

However, the financial year 2009 is expected to see some shift in FII preference with banking sector stocks emerging as their favorite while IT sectors falling out.

In its India market strategy for the financial year 2009-10, UBS has turned underweight on consumer staples, IT services and oil and gas while maintaining overweight on the auto, banking and metal sector stocks.

Even as the FIIs have been the major sellers in the domestic market throughout 2008 and first quarter of 2009, with their total net equity sales registering Rs 6,140.3 crore till date in the current calendar year, a UBS report points to the recent data, which indicate that FII sales are slowing down and based on the improvement in the global sentiment, FII flows could turn positive in the coming weeks. As such, UBS has maintained a bullish stance on the Indian market and has given a Sensex target of 13,500 by March 2010.

But the IT sector stocks, which have witnessed no major changes in the FII ownership in the year 2008, might see some pressure from foreign investors during 2009 as they are not expecting an imminent recovery in the US economy.

“We are underweight on IT services, as we believe IT budgets in 2009 will decline from the low single digit up to 20%. We forecasts a revenue decline of 5- 7% year on year (YoY) in dollar terms in FY10 for top tier IT companies while the tier – 2 IT companies will see a much steeper revenue declines”, the UBS report states.

However, recent measures like a cut in the key interest rate by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and expectation of a recovery in the global commodity prices has resulted in a revival of sentiments towards auto, banking and metal sectors. Experts said that most of the concerns on the banking sector like banks non-performing loans (NPLs), a slowdown in the loan growth, among others, have been largely priced in at the moment and a economic recovery will likely lead to reversal in sentiments by the second half of 2009.

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: acc, auto, bank, banking, Banking Sector, calendar, capital, commodity, communication, Consumer, Consumer Staples, crore, cut, data, date, December, decline, digit, dollar, Dollar Terms, downturn, economy, end, equity, expectation, exposure, FII, fiis, foreign, Foreign Institutional Investors, Foreign Investors, Gas, grasim, growth, half, hdfc, HDFC Bank, Hindalco, improvement, India, India Market, infosys, interest, itc, LandT, loan, March, market, Market Strategy, metal, moment, NPLs, oil, overweight, ownership, pack, preference, pressure, quarter, ranbaxy, rate, RBI, recovery, Reliance, Reliance communication, report, reserve, revenue, Revenue Decline, reversal, revival, sector, Sensex, sentiment, shift, slowdown, stance, strategy, target, TCS, tier, Tier 2, UBS, underweight, US, Wipro., year, YoY

Infosys to pick up most of IBM’s support contract with Australia’s Telstra

March 24, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Melbourne, Mar.24 (ANI): Bangalore-based software giant Infosys will pick up most of IBM Global Services’ multi-million dollar applications support contract with Australian software giant Telstra, after the latter’s deal with the former was scrapped following TELCO reducing its outsourcing partners from four to two.

According to The Australian, the decision to shift from IBM to Infosys could result in hundreds of job losses locally and in Bangalore, where IBM operates outsourcing centres.

IBM GS staff were told the scratching of the vendor’s software support would represent about 50 per cent of its one billion dollar, six-year deal with Telstra, signed in early 2006.

Telstra’s decision to drop IBM was a big surprise to IBM GS staff, who expected the contract to continue until 2012.

The deal was lost not because of performance issues but because Infosys low-balled the IBM offer, sources said.

Telstra has been reviewing its IT outsourcing contracts with Satyam, EDS, IBM GS and Infosys since last year, when the TELCO announced it would trim its list of major IT suppliers from four to two in an effort to reduce costs and streamline its providers. (ANI)

Filed Under: Business News Tagged With: ANI, applications support, Australia, Australia melbourne, australian software, Bangalore, Bangalore-based, Based Software, cent, contract, contracts, deal, decision, dollar, EDS, effort, former, giant, Global, IBM, Ibm Australia, Ibm Global Services, Ibm Support, infosys, job, job losses, latter, list, mar, Melbourne, offer, one billion, outsourcing, performance, Performance Issues, satyam, software, software giant, software support, staff, support, support contract, surprise, TELCO, telstra, vendor, year

Infosys sets up a science foundation in Bangalore

February 17, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Bangalore, Feb 17 (ANI): IT major Infosys Technologies on Tuesday announced that it has set up a fund ‘Infosys Science Foundation’, for awarding outstanding achievements in various fields.

This foundation would be funded by a corpus of 210.5 million rupees, contributed by the firm’s board members and an annual grant from Infosys Technologies Limited.

The trust would honour an annual award of five million rupees to the countrymen for their exceptional contribution in the arena of physical and mathematical sciences, engineering, life science and social sciences and economics.

The award is the largest one in the history of India and a jury of five eminent international personalities and academic experts in each discipline will choose five top awardees.

Addressing reporters here, Infosys founder N. R. Narayana Murthy said the aim was to focus on higher education.

“Focus on higher education is extremely important because we do not know about any country in the world, which has succeeded in solving the problem of its people, even the basic issues without a sound higher education system,” Murthy said.

Murthy also added that India needs bright minds in all areas of academics, government, business and society to strive for global excellence.

Conceptualized in 1981 by seven people with 250 dollars, Infosys is a global leader in IT industry today, and offers a wide spectrum of IT and consulting services with revenues of over 4 billion dollars. (ANI)

Filed Under: Business News Tagged With: aim, ANI, arena, award, Bangalore, board, business, conceptualized, consulting, contribution, corpus, country, discipline, Education, engineering, excellence, Feb, firm, focus, Foundation, founder, fund, Government, grant, history, honour, India, industry, infosys, jury, leader, life, limited, murthy, N. R. Narayana, problem, Science, society, sound, spectrum, system, today, trust, Tuesday, world

Narayana Murthy appointed Lankan President’s IT advisor

February 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Colombo, Feb 14, (ANI): Sri Lankan Government has appointed the founder of IT major Infosys, Narayana Murthy, as the international advisor to President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Sri Lankan Foreign Secretary Palitha Kohona described this step as a bid to increase investments into the Information Technology sector in Sri Lanka.

“N. R. Narayana Murthy was appointed as the international adviser to the Sri Lankan President and he has accepted it,” he said.

Rajapaksa had invited former Infosys chief at the Presidential Secretariat on Friday as the chief guest to the ceremonial launch of ’2009-Year of English and Information Technology’.

He stated that the recent success of Indian IT sector has highly inspired Sri Lanka.

“It is for this reason that we have turned to India in addition to other countries for technical support to strengthen our own endeavours. We are honoured by the presence of Narayana Murthy,” Rajapaksa said. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: addition, adviser, advisor, ANI, bid, Colombo, english, Feb, foreign, founder, Friday, Government, guest, India, information, infosys, Kohona, lankan, launch, mahinda, murthy, N. R. Narayana, Palitha, presence, president, presidential, rajapaksa, reason, secretariat, secretary, sector, Sri Lanka, step, success, support, Technology, year

Software growth rate could be less than 16-17 percent: Infosys

February 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

New Delhi, Feb. 5, (ANI): Infosys Director T. V. Mohandas Pai said on Thursday that India’s software export growth rate could be less than 16-17 percent during the current fiscal.

The shares of country’s second-largest software company, Infosys, were fallen down 3.35 percent at Rs. 1,240 on the Bombay Stocks Exchange.

“The customer is not spending on IT and there is a pricing pressure on the software companies,”Pai said.

The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) had also stated yesterday that the sector’s export revenue would touch 47 billion dollars with a growth rate of 16-17 percent in 2008-09. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: ANI, association, bombay, company, country, customer, director, exchange, export, Feb, fiscal, growth, India, infosys, mohandas, Nasscom, national, New Delhi, Pai, percent, pressure, pricing, rate, revenue, sector, software, Thursday, yesterday