Infosys Technologies Ltd beats the markets expectations comes up with healthy performance, considering the current global slowdown

It will be foolish to compare the results Q-o-Q as is done by Mukherjee duos, Udayan and Mitali; since the situation is different now than in FY08. It is easy to criticise a company sitting in the comforts of air-conditioned studios.

The stock is going to move up today, inspite of CNBC TV 18 guys are trying to run down the stock, due to some reasons best known to all....

The markets were expecting much worse results from Infosys Technologies Ltd and with this kind of compartively positive/good results coming today, the company has proved that it is still one of numero unos in the Information Technology Sector.

IT bellwether Infosys Technologies declared a healthy performance in the October-December quarter, reporting 14.5 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 1641 crore as against Rs 1432 crore in the previous quarter. Income stood at Rs 5786 crore vs Rs 5418 crore (QoQ). On Monday, the company's shares ended 3.22 per cent at Rs 1156.60 on BSE.

Infosys, the second-largest software services exporter in the country, kicked off the sector's earnings parade today, which would be followed by Tata Consultancy Services on Thursday.

After Satyam lost its credibility, Infosys Technologies is expected to gain the most among the top Indian IT players. Although there will be no shift towards one single provider, Infosys’ reputation as a firm with high corporate governance standards as well as its US listing is expected to stand it in good stead when customers make a choice, said analysts. On Wednesday, when Ramalinga Raju confessed to cooking Satyam’s books, Infosys was among the few IT stocks that ended higher.

The stock was up 1.7% to Rs 1,187, as compared to Wipro and TCS that ended almost flat at Rs 243.30 and Rs 503.70, respectively. HCL Technologies, the other top player, was down 15%. "The senior management of Infosys has come out quite aggressively in the media on maintaining high corporate governance standards," pointed out Ascendia Consulting principal analyst Alok Shende.

However, the hitch to this could be Infosys’ premium pricing, which some analysts said was 10-15% higher than Satyam’s rates. This, along with a substantial customer overlap, could work in the favour of the number one IT exporter, TCS.