IT stocks gain as Cognizant ups revenue guidance

Led by TCS, IT stocks were in demand today, a day after Cognizant reported a 9.7 per cent growth in net profit for the March quarter and also upped its revenue guidance for the year.
Shares of TCS gained 2.25 per cent to Rs 2,535 on the BSE.
Others like, Wipro climbed 1.23 per cent, while HCL Technologies was up 1 per cent and Infosys rose by 0.53 per cent.
Led by strong growth in healthcare business, IT services firm Cognizant yesterday notched up a 9.7 per cent increase in net profit at USD 382.9 million for the March quarter and also marginally upped its revenue guidance for the 2015 fiscal.

Cognizant's net profit stood at USD 348.9 million in the first quarter of 2014.
The US-based firm saw its revenue grow 20.2 per cent to USD 2.91 billion in the reported quarter from USD 2.42 billion in the year-ago period, higher than its own guidance of USD 2.88 billion.

The better-than-expected numbers are in contrast to those from its Indian counterparts like TCS and Infosys that posted muted quarterly earnings impacted by currency fluctuations.
Cognizant has marginally increased its revenue forecast for the fiscal 2015 to be up at least 19.3 per cent (to USD 12.24 billion) from its earlier forecast of at least 19 per cent growth (USD 12.21 billion) compared with 2014.

For the April-June quarter, it expects its revenue to be at least USD 3.01 billion.