At 7:10 AM, Gift Nifty futures were up by 17 points or 0.07%, trading at 24,835.5, suggesting a flat-to-positive opening for domestic equities on Friday, July 19. The previous day saw indices reaching record closing highs, with IT stocks leading the charge. The Sensex rose by 627 points, or 0.78%, to close at 81,343.46, while the Nifty gained 186 points, or 0.76%, to end at 24,800.85.

IT Sector Report: Q2 Earnings- On Thursday, the major IT services firm reported a 7% increase in consolidated net profit, reaching ₹6,368 crore for the April-June quarter, and raised its growth outlook for the current financial year, indicating improvements in the IT sector.

As business conditions improve, Infosys plans to hire 15,000-20,000 freshers, contingent on growth throughout the year. Infosys’ consolidated revenue rose by 3.6%, reaching ₹39,315 crore during the reported quarter, up from ₹37,933 crore the previous year. For the current fiscal year, the company has revised its revenue growth guidance to 3-4% in constant currency terms, up from the earlier projection of 1-3%. Since the March 2023 quarter, the company has been experiencing a continuous decline in headcount.

IT Sector Report: Q2 Earnings- Earnings to be announced today: Reliance Industries (RIL), Paytm, Patanjali Foods, Wipro, JSW Energy, JSW Steel, Indian Hotels, and Oberoi Realty, among others, are set to release their June quarter earnings.

Tata Technologies: On Thursday, Tata Technologies Ltd, a global engineering and product development digital services firm, reported a 15.4% drop in consolidated profit after tax to ₹162.03 crore for the June 2024 quarter, due to higher expenses. In the same quarter last fiscal, the company had posted a consolidated profit after tax (PAT) of ₹191.53 crore. Consolidated revenue from operations for the first quarter was ₹1,268.97 crore, compared to ₹1,257.53 crore in the year-ago period.

Polycab: Wires and cables manufacturer Polycab India Ltd reported a slight decline in consolidated net profit to ₹401.62 crore for the June 2024 quarter, also impacted by higher expenses. The company’s consolidated net profit was ₹403.16 crore in the same period last fiscal. Consolidated revenue from operations for the first quarter stood at ₹4,698 crore, up from ₹3,889.38 crore in the year-ago period.

IT Sector Report: Q2 Earnings- On Thursday, Tata Communications reported a 12.8% decline in net profit for the June quarter, attributed to decreased earnings from voice solutions and data services. The consolidated net profit, attributable to equity holders, fell to ₹332.84 crore from ₹381.69 crore in the same period last year. Although revenue from data services increased, pre-tax earnings dropped 22.7% year-on-year to ₹291.09 crore for the first quarter of the fiscal year.

Mastek reported a 53.2% rise in consolidated net profit to ₹22.5 crore for the first quarter ending June 30, 2018, compared to ₹14.7 crore in the same period last year. The company’s consolidated income from operations increased by 31.5% to ₹244 crore for the April-June 2018 quarter, up from ₹185.6 crore a year earlier.

L&T Technology Services (LTTS) announced a 1% rise in post-tax profit for the June quarter, reaching ₹314 crore, despite a decline in profitability. The company had a net profit of ₹311 crore in the same period last year, but profit after tax (PAT) was down 8% compared to the preceding March quarter. Overall revenues grew 7% to ₹2,462 crore from ₹2,301 crore a year ago, but were 3% lower than the ₹2,538 crore reported in the previous quarter.

Persistent Systems: Profit up YoY, down QoQ

Persistent Systems: The Pune-based mid-tier IT firm reported a 33.9% increase in net profit to ₹306.41 crore for the quarter ending June, up from ₹228.76 crore a year earlier. However, sequentially, net profit declined by 2.8% from ₹315.3 crore in the previous quarter.

HAL: The company has amended its Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) concerning the completion of the LCA AF Mk-2 development. This amendment, valued at ₹2,970 crore, includes ₹285 crore for foreign exchange, is related to the Full Scale Engineering Development (FSED) Phase-3 of the LCA AF Mk-2 program.

Tech Mahindra: The company announced in its BSE filing that it has approved a merger plan between its wholly-owned step-down subsidiary, vCustomer Philippines (Cebu), Inc., and its parent company, vCustomer Philippines Inc., which is also a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tech Mahindra. This approval was granted on Thursday, July 18, 2024.