Asian equity markets are mixed today. The Nikkei 225 is up 0.22%, while the Hang Seng is up 0.01%. The Shanghai Composite is trading down by 0.20%. US markets ended higher and the Dow another record high close, with financials rising ahead of profit reports due Friday from several big US banks.
Back home, share markets in India have opened the day on a flat note with a negative bias. The BSE Sensex is trading lower by 31 points while the NSE Nifty is trading lower by 8 points. The BSE Mid Cap Index and BSE Small Cap index opened the day up by 0.2% & 0.3% respectively.
Sectoral indices have opened the day on a mixed note with healthcare stocks and consumer durables stocks leading the pack of gainers. While FMCG and realty stocks have opened the day in red. The rupee is trading at 64.44 to the US$.
IT stocks opened the day on a mixed note with Moser Baer India and Mphasis Ltd leading the losses. TCS share price fell over 2.3% after the IT major posted 10% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) drop in June quarter net profit at Rs 59.50 billion, which was substantially below the Rs 62.03 billion profit estimate projected. This is the biggest drop in quarterly profit in two years.
On a year-on-year (YoY) basis, PAT slipped 5.8% for the quarter in rupee terms. The company said the impact of the wage hike on Q1 profitability was 150 basis points.
The double whammy of wage hike and a stronger rupee shaved off the IT giant’s operating margins by 2.3% points to 23.4, missing the 26-28% target.
Revenue from the digital stream grew 26% to constitute 18.9% of the total pie and the company is currently doing US$ 3.5 billion per year on the front.
On the employee front, TCS’ headcount came down by over 1,400 to 0.39 million over the past three months, but as per the company, there have not been any layoffs unlike at some of its peers such as Wipro, Tech Mahindra and others.
