The bull statue at the Bombay Stock Exchange building, in Mumba.
| Photo Credit: PTI

Equity benchmark indices rallied in early trade on Friday, July 12, 2024, amid buying in IT stocks after TCS announced its June quarter earnings.

The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 226.11 points to 80,123.45 in early trade. The NSE Nifty went up by 82.1 points to 24,398.05.

Among the Sensex pack, Tata Consultancy Services climbed over 2 per cent after the country’s largest IT services player reported 8.7 per cent growth in the June quarter net profit at ₹12,040 crore.

Infosys, Axis Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bajaj Finance, Tech Mahindra and HCL Technologies were the other major gainers.

Maruti, Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel and ITC were among the laggards.

“The positive domestic cue is the better-than-expected numbers from TCS and positive management commentary which can lift most IT stocks,” said V K Vijayakumar, Chief Investment Strategist, Geojit Financial Services.

In Asian markets, Hong Kong quoted higher while Seoul, Tokyo and Shanghai traded lower.

US markets ended mostly lower on Thursday.

Global oil benchmark Brent crude climbed 0.25 per cent to USD 85.59 a barrel.

Foreign Institutional Investors (FIIs) offloaded equities worth ₹1,137.01 crore on Thursday, according to exchange data.

Retreating from early highs, the BSE benchmark closed lower by 27.43 points or 0.03 per cent at 79,897.34 on Thursday. The NSE Nifty edged down 8.50 points or 0.03 per cent to settle at 24,315.95.

TCS’ net profit fell 3.1% compared to March quarter. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

India’s largest IT services company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) on July 11 posted an 8.7% year-on-year rise in its consolidated net profit at ₹12,040 crore in the first quarter ended June 2024.

The net profit for the year-ago period stood at ₹11,074 crore.

The company, which competes in the IT services market with the likes of Infosys, Wipro and HCLTech, reported a 5.4% increase in its revenue at ₹62,613 crore for the quarter just ended.

Sequentially, however, the net profit fell 3.1% compared to March quarter.

“I am pleased to report a strong start to the new fiscal year with all-round growth across industries and markets,” K Krithivasan, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of TCS, said in a release.

The company is continuing to expand its client relationships, create new capabilities in emerging technologies and invest in innovation, including a new AI-focused TCS PacePort in France, IoT lab in the US, and expanding delivery centres in Latin America, Canada and Europe, Mr. Krithivasan added.

Samir Seksaria, Chief Financial Officer, noted that despite the usual impact of the annual wage increments in this quarter, the company delivered strong operating margin performance validating its efforts towards operational excellence.

“I am delighted to announce the successful completion of our annual increment process. Our continued focus on employee engagement and development led to industry-leading retention and strong business performance, with the net headcount addition being a matter of immense satisfaction,” Milind Lakkad, Chief HR Officer, said.

TCS has declared an interim dividend of ₹10 per equity share of ₹1 each.