Infosys, incorporated in the year 1981, is a Large Cap company (having a market cap of Rs 662971.50 Crore) operating in IT Software sector.

Reports here are flagging that the firm co-founded by British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's father-in-law, Narayana Murthy, was contesting a GBP 20 million tax bill with His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) department.

Tech Mahindra, Britannia, Bajaj Finance, HDFC Life and Infosys were among the top losers on NSE.

A question arises as to why IT companies have done well despite the fear of a recession and a potential downturn in the US and Europe. Has the market overlooked some important detail, or is this just a temporary surge?

"Affordable housing, electricity, Nal se Jal, and higher manufacturing would remain the prime focus for the government. Infra spending will get a further push. Capital expenditure can be increased from 2.9% of GDP to 3.5% of GDP."

“You might be wondering, why isn't instant settlement like payments possible. This is because most trading volumes on the exchange are from intraday traders who buy and sell stocks without taking delivery or have the stocks to deliver immediately," said billionaire Kamath.

While announcing its September quarter earnings, HCL Tech had raised the constant currency revenue growth guidance to 13.5-14.5% for FY23. But 2 months later, it said that growth is likely to be at the lower end of this range.

While TCS reported strong numbers for the December quarter, it wasnt good enough to entice investors as risks to earnings growth persists amid the macroeconomic slowdown in Europe and US.

The BSE Sensex index ended 320 points or 0.53% higher at 60,941, while Nifty50 rose 91 points or 0.50% to settle at 18,118

We feel participants should maintain their focus on stock selection amid the prevailing consolidation phase in the index and wait for a decisive breakout on either side. Going ahead, the upcoming earnings announcement of index majors might provide the needed trigger. Besides, global cues, especially the performance of the US indices, will remain in focus.

This time around, metal stocks have generally been on the positive side in the last month. So, there is a 60% chance that we are going to see a positive move post the Union Budget. The power sector has been witnessing profit booking since September, pulled down majorly by institutional activity. Institutions have been net sellers to the tune of Rs.1463 crore in the last four months.

Four of the 10 most valued firms together added Rs 82,480.67 crore in market valuation last week, with HDFC Bank and Adani Total Gas emerging as the top gainers. While Infosys and HDFC were the other gainers, Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), ICICI Bank, Hindustan Unilever, State Bank of India and Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) faced erosion from their market valuation.

In terms of geographies, North America grew 19.6% year on year while Europe just reported 0.2% growth. The company said Europes underperformance was largely due to currency impact seen previously and, going forward, the market is expected to be on a “good growth trajectory” due the strong deal wins this quarter.

As far as the budget is concerned, for the last 3-4 years budget has remained non-event for the market, and most of the policy decision has been announced separately. We dont expect any pre-budget rally.

The Rs 2,000-crore Kotak fund, an India-focused late-stage alternative investment fund (AIF), primarily focuses on investments in late-stage companies. Investors in the fund as its limited partners include family offices such as Catamaran of Infosys cofounder NR Narayana Murthy, and Skywalker of Rubamin group.

​So it is our base case that this sector will continue to do well and it is amply reflected in our model portfolio where PSU banks have been the single largest overweight for us for more than a year running now.

“We have held a reasonable weight to this sector to keep a balanced portfolio. The expectations were not that high and obviously the numbers are probably coming through better than expected. So yes, we like this space and continue to have good holdings there.”

A sharp slowdown in net hiring, muted growth outlook in 4Q and a potentially slower conversion of bookings to revenues points to a sharp growth moderation for Indian IT firms. However, falling attrition and ongoing improvement in the employee pyramid should support margin recovery

Geojit is bullish on Infosys has recommended buy rating on the stock with a target price of Rs 1692 in its research report dated January 17, 2023.

We believe the slowdown impact would be more broad-based, and could be more in the hi-tech segment where clients may not opt for upgrades and rather continue with the current processes,” said Mitul Shah, head of research at Reliance Securities.

I don't see a long-drawn patch. I think it is more tactical right now because large markets are moving very fast and India was a consensus overweight. In fact, it wasn't a consensus overweight till about third quarter of last year because we were seeing continuous FII outflows.

When a company goes ex-dividend on a particular date, its stock does not carry the value of the next dividend payment. Usually, an ex-dividend date is set one or two days before the record date.

"Wipro has a considerable exposure on the energy side when it comes to its analysis from a vertical point of view and that has not yet turned stable. I would say what the investors look for in the stocks is the momentum gathering up in terms of top line through deal wins."

Sula Vineyards Ltd., Generic Engg, Innovana Thinklabs, Network People Services Technologies Ltd. and Upsurge Seeds of Agriculture Ltd., hit their fresh 52-week highs at 11:27AM.

Adani Ent., M&M, BPCL, Cipla and Eicher Motors were among the top losers on NSE.

The NSE Nifty index was trading 18.15 points up at 17974.75

The NSE Nifty index was trading 21.45 points up at 17978.05

The brokerage maintains a Buy rating on Infosys with an unchanged PT of Rs. 1,730 given strong deal pipeline, its end -to-end capabilities and prowess in digital areas, analytics, automation and Cobalt cloud.

Overall, the revenue growth band of the top-tier IT players was pegged at between 14-20 per cent for Q3FY23, compared to the year ago period. Seen sequentially, the topline growth for the large IT pack ranged between three per cent and eight per cent versus previous September quarter.

“China reopening is a big theme for the global commodity prices and demand which could lead to some support for the metal stocks specifically. If you look at some of the base metal prices, they have been hitting three month, six month highs. ”

Right now it is the internet and the technology shares of China and the consumption oriented ones which are getting money, so a little surprising. Secondly, given the dollar level, normally you would see emerging market inflows coming in and growth stories like India tend to benefit whenever the dollar index starts to go down.

Net open interest, the total number of outstanding positions, in Infosys' stock futures declined as much as 7%, or by roughly 28.6 lakh contracts, in the previous two sessions indicating squaring-off of bearish bets, showed provisional data from stock exchanges.

Wipro won deals worth $4.3 billion in the quarter, up by 26% YoY, with large deal bookings rising by 69% YoY. The growth in large deal booking was much stronger than the 24% growth reported for the September quarter.

“Our top pick would remain Infosys which we have been bullish on since the last two-three quarters. Within the IT pack, we like Infosys only and last quarter we upgraded HCL Tech from hold to buy. The second bet would be HCL Tech. We have a buy on Wipro but after this commentary, we would able to come out with details in terms of whether we will maintain the positive stance”

The NSE Nifty index closed 98.4 points up at 17956.6