Indian IT giant Infosys raised the floor of its revenue forecast for the current fiscal year on Thursday after reporting stronger-than-expected results for the July-September quarter.
The Infosys campus at the Electronics City IT district in Bengaluru. Photos by Reuters file
Infosys is India's second-largest software services exporter and earns more than 80 per cent of its revenue from Western markets.
However, it has struggled with a demand slowdown over the past 18 months, as well as global uncertainty made worse by US President Donald Trump's chaotic trade policies.
Trump's global tariff blitz doesn't directly hurt India's $283 billion outsourcing sector, but trade tensions hurt companies around the world and make them more reluctant to spend on big tech projects.
The IT industry's outlook has also darkened after Trump imposed a new $100,000 fee on H-1B visas that experts say will force Indian firms to hire more from the United States, hurting margins as a result.
However, Infosys's second-quarter figures released on Thursday hint at a slow revival in client spending.
The Bengaluru-headquartered firm said revenue would likely grow two to three percent on a constant-currency basis for the current financial year.
It had earlier forecast revenue would grow one to three percent this fiscal year.
The company also reported a 13.19 per cent on-year increase in net profit to Rs73.6 billion ($837.7 million) for the July-September quarter. Analysts polled by Bloomberg had expected Rs72.24 billion on average.
Revenue rose 8.5 per cent year-on-year to Rs444.9 billion, beating expectations of Rs439.29 billion.
"We had robust all-round performance in Q2 - strong growth, resilient margins, very high cash generation," chief financial officer Jayesh Sanghrajka said in a statement.
Sanghrajka said Infosys continues to make strategic investments to "futureproof the business" amid "high uncertainty".
Shares in Infosys ended 0.2 per cent lower at the close of trading in Mumbai on Thursday before the earnings announcement.