Bengaluru: Infosys did two things on Friday that pulled investors in opposite directions — it beat on profit, and it cut its own forecast for the year.
The IT services major reported a 6% year-on-year rise in second-quarter net profit to ₹7,823 crore. It also announced a dividend of ₹26 a share.
But the company lowered its full-year revenue growth guidance for FY27, pointing to subdued volumes, pricing pressure and continued uncertainty. That was enough to send its American Depositary Receipts down about 8% in pre-market trading, from $13.22 to about $12.15.
The cautious outlook landed on a market already nervous about technology spending. On Wall Street, the Nasdaq had fallen 2.9% on Thursday as doubts over artificial intelligence valuations resurfaced; the sell-off echoed through Asian markets on Friday.
The Nifty IT index, though, held up better than the broader market, ending just 0.27% lower, as a weak rupee supports exporters. TCS was among the day's top gainers, up 3.71%, followed by Infosys and HCL Technologies.
Infosys' guidance cut underlines how deal-driven and dollar-linked IT revenue is, and how closely the sector tracks US client spending. Its results, along with those of its peers, will shape how investors read the sector in the quarters ahead.
The next set of quarterly results and the US Fed meeting on October 27-28 are the near-term triggers for IT stocks. The guidance cut makes plain how deal-driven and dollar-linked IT revenue is, and how closely it tracks US client spending. The sector's growth in a period of subdued demand is now the open question for investors.