Infosys lagged profit estimates for the July to September quarter, but sales topped estimates. Infosys shares rallied as much as 7.5 per cent in opening trade after the company upped the lower end of its annual sales guidance, indicating rising confidence at India’s second largest outsourcer.

Infosys said net profit for the second quarter rose to Rs. 2,407 crore as against Rs. 2,374 crore in the June quarter. Profits lagged estimates on account of a one-time visa settlement charge of Rs. 219 crore. Revenues for the quarter rose to Rs. 12,965 crore as against Rs. 11,267 crore in the previous quarter, Infosys said.

Infosys’ US dollar revenue for the quarter jumped 3.8 per cent to $ 2066 million, higher than expectations of $2042 million. Infosys had recorded sales of $1991 million in the June quarter. This is the first time that Infosys topped $2 billion in quarterly sales.

Commenting on the results, SD Shibulal, CEO and Managing Director said, “During the quarter we witnessed broad-based volume growth, robust client additions, five large deal wins and increased sales momentum of our big data and cloud offerings. This growth is a result of our focus on execution, which helps our clients achieve their objectives.”

Mehraboon Irani of Nirmal Bank Securities told NDTV that Infosys has turned the corner as far as the company goes. “The will be a stock people will again look at.”

Infosys shares pared gains after a strong start and the stock dropped to as low as Rs. 3,157 after earlier hitting a high of Rs. 3,360. Analysts said Infosys’ sales outlook for 2013-14 was conservative.

Infosys has raised the lower end of the guidance from 6 to 9 per cent, but the upper end remains at 10 per cent. So, despite raising the guidance, Infosys growth for the full year may be lower than 12-14 per cent growth estimate for the sector made by local IT industry lobby National Association of Software and Services Companies.
Ambareesh Baliga of Edelweiss Global Wealth told NDTV that people were more optimistic on the guidance front, but at current levels, the best is priced in the stock.

Guidance apart, brokerages were impressed by the operational numbers. Infosys shares traded 5.2 per cent higher at Rs. 3,285.85 as of 10.40 a.m. and traded at the top of the 50-share Nifty benchmark.

Trip Chowdhry of Global Equity Research told NDTV that Infosys has benefitted from NR Narayana Murthy at the top and uptick in select areas of technology.

Mr Murthy, who co-founded Infosys, returned back from retirement on June 1.

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