Infosys Q1 results, FY guidance disappoints

Shares of India's second largest software services providerInfosys  tumbled 10% on Thursday morning after the company disappointed the street with lower-than-expected first quarter net profit and a significant cut in US dollar revenue guidance.

Its consolidated net profit for the first quarter rose 33% year-on-year (down 1% sequentially) to Rs 2,289 crore, while revenue was barely in-line at Rs 9,616 crore, up 29% (up 9% quarter-on-quarter).

Analysts on average were expecting Infosys to report a net profit of Rs 2,448 crore on revenue of Rs 9,665 crore.

Tech companies have been hit hard as clients delay decision making and cut budget spends amid the global economic uncertainties led by the Eurozone debt crisis. The volatile currency movements have also hurt IT firms. On top of that Infosys has also been bogged down by internal restructuring issues over the last few quarters.

Infosys once trendsetter has fallen behind rival Tata Consultancy Services , missing already conservative guidance for several quarters and that trend has continued in April-June.

The company was expected to cut its US dollar revenue guidance following the sharp depreciation in rupee to the dollar. But it shocked the street with a forecast of just 5% growth in USD revenue growth for the full year, sharply lower than its earlier guidance of 8-10% growth.  It now expects its USD revenue will be at least USD 7.34 billion this year.

Its USD earnings per share is expected to be at least USD 3.03, up 1% YoY.

In the first quarter, its USD revenue rose 5% to USD 1.75 billion, which was also lower than its own and street forecast of USD 1.77 billion.

"Global currency volatility continues to a big challenge for the industry," said V Balakrishnan, CFO.

SD Shibulal, Infosys CEO and MD also said there were challenges in the global economic situation resulting in slower IT spends by large corporations.

While Moshe Katri, MD of Cowen & CO, agrees the environment has deteriorated considerably, he told CNBC-Tv18 that Infosys is going through transformational and structural issues; the biggest disappointment was the guidance.

India's largest software services provider TCS will also report its first quarter earnings post market hours. Analysts on average expect the profit after tax to grow 11% quarter-on-quarter to Rs 3,250 crore while revenue is seen up by 12% to Rs 14,806 crore. 

At 9:30 hrs, Infosys shares were down 9.4% at Rs 2,239.80 on NSE. TCS was down 1.1% at Rs 1,244.50.

Wrestler-actor Dara Singh dies at 83

The he-man of the 60's, wrestler and veteran actor Dara Singh, 83, died today in Mumbai. He was admitted to Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital last Saturday and was undergoing dialysis.

Read: Dara Singh still 'very critical' 

The actor was shifted back home on Wednesday evening after doctors said he had "less chance of recovery" due to serious damage to his brain.

"As Dara Singh's condition was deteriorating fast, respecting wishes of his family, he has been shifted home with ventilator and medicines. A nurse and a doctor are at his home. There are no medicines that will reverse the brain damage... only if a miracle happens. He might even slip into coma," Dr Ram Narain, COO, Kokilaben hospital had said.

"He is already home. Please don't follow us. When he breathes his last, I'll let you know. There is no hope," his son Vindu Dara Singh told reporters.

Decorated with titles such as Rustum-e-Punjab and Rustum-e-Hind for his wrestling poweress, Dara Singh Randhava was born in Amritsar in 1928. He studied pehelwani as a child. A wrestling champ, he made his way from local tournaments to the international arena competing with some of the biggest names like Oriental Champion King Kong, George Gordienko. The wrestler who had over 500 fights to his credit was the Commonwealth champion in 1959 and Champion of the World in 1968. He retired from wrestling in 1983.

He made his entry into films in early 1960s and was cast opposite actress Mumtaz in several movies. Often regarded as the Action King of Bollywood in the Hollywood inspired Hindi films such as Tarzan and King Kong amongst many others.

But his most memorable performance remains as Hanuman on the popular 1980's television seriesRamayan.

The actor who also directed several punjabi films continued to act in films and was last seen in the hit movie, Jab We Met in 2007.

Globus Spirits may slip to Rs 110

Globus Spirits may slip to Rs 110, says SP Tulsian, sptulsian.com.

Tulsian told CNBC-TV18, “Globus Spirits, especially if you see the denial having issued by the management we have seen a steep correction. Generally, it is very risky to dabble into these kinds of stocks on some kind of news flow and we see small investors getting trapped because they are not looking to the fundamentals they just ride the momentum. So it’s very risky and I won’t be surprise to see stock again correcting back to about Rs 110 or so in the next one week or so.”

He further added, “The preference be for theReliance Communication , but the second stock for which I will definitely be taking a call could be Reliance Infra because the kind of positive bias, which we have been seeing building up for the infra stocks Reliance Infra looks to be the better stock in that space of ADAG camp.”

“All these packaging film results have not been very good because the only trigger in Uflex has been the stake sell by the promoters, which is not been happening, probably after we see the Samajwadi Party coming back into the power lot of hopes got built up that they may go ahead and sell their promoter’s stake because Ashok Chaturvedi who has been- there was a talk for the last 6 months. So I don’t think that results will really be the trigger considering the results having posted by the other packaging film makers for the recent past.”

Syndicate Bank quoting ex-dividend

Syndicate Bank in its meeting held on May 05, 2012 has recommended a dividend of Rs 3.80 per share (38%) for the year 2011-2012, subject to approval of shareholders at the Annual General Meeting.

It touched an intraday high of Rs 107.60 and an intraday low of Rs 105.20. At 09:39 hrs the share was quoting at Rs 107.25, down Rs 3.20, or 2.90%. 
 
It was trading with volumes of 16,036 shares. In the previous trading session, the share closed up 2.17% or Rs 2.35 at Rs 110.45.

Citizens willing to pay Rs. 15 for bottle of water, but won't pay Rs. 1 more for a kilo of rice

Bangalore: India would soon return to high growth path soon with several measures being taken by the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to reboot the economy battered by external and internal factors, P Chidambaram said  on Tuesday in Bangalore.  The Union Home Minister was addressing a press conference.

To a question on high food inflation and the plight of the middle class, Mr Chidambaram said the issues should not be looked from the point of view of urban middle class alone and said hike in procurement price reflected on food prices. "Higher procurement prices will reflect in higher food prices... but higher procurement prices benefits millions of farmers. if you increase the price of sugarcane, sugar cannot be cheaper... if you increase the procurement price of wheat, paddy, rice the consumer cannot pay less," he said.
   
He quipped people were prepared to pay Rs. 15 for a bottle of water and Rs. 20 for a cone icecream, but protest against rise in wheat and rice price. "You are prepared to pay Rs. 15 for a bottle of water, but we will not pay a one rupee increase in the price of kilo rice or kilo wheat. We are prepared to pay 20 rupees for ice cream cone but we will not pay one rupee more for a kilo rice or kilo wheat," he said.


Giving a report card on the performance of the second UPA government in the past three years, Mr Chidambaram said despite a challenging year when developed countries the world over registered zero or no growth in 2011-12, India registered 6.8 percent GDP growth. "Compared to other countries, India continues to be a high investment destination, as a whopping $46.55 billion of foreign direct investment in 2011-12. We also continue to be a major overseas investor after the US, Britain, Canada, Germany and France. Exports contributed 22 percent to the GDP in 2011-12 from a mere 5.3 percent over a decade ago," Mr Chidambaram pointed out.

He admitted 2011-12 was a bad year during which the country achieved a GDP growth of 6.5 per cent which is "not enough" for a developing country like India where millions of people are in poverty. "We need to grow at a faster rate. We need to create more jobs," he said, adding, "India needs to grow at over 8 per cent or perhaps at 9 per cent." Despite the difficulties, Mr Chidambaram pointed out  that  the government has identified the problems and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who also holds the finance portfolio, is addressing these issues.