Infosys tumbles 6 per cent in trade over muted earnings

Shares of the country's second largest software firm Infosys tumbled by as much as 6 per cent in early trade on the bourses on Tuesday after the company's announcement of its Quarter 1 results failed to keep up to the market expectations.

Infosys' net jumped nearly 16 per cent to Rs 1,722 crore and its revenues rose to Rs 7,485 crore in the first quarter ended June 30, 2011. However, market analysts said investors were expecting a better performance.

Reacting to the muted results, shares of the company opened on a weak note at Rs 2,850, then fell further to a low of Rs 2,749.35, down 5.81 per cent from their previous closing price in morning trade on the BSE .

Similar movement was witnessed on the National Stock Exchange, where the stock opened at Rs 2,850, then declined to a low of Rs 2,746.80, down 5.96 per cent from its previous close.

"The dip in the stock was largely because the Q1 results were below street expectations," Ashika Stock Broking Research Head (Equities) Paras Bothra said, adding that, "Infosys in going into a bad patch, transition of management is also keeping a check on the Infosys as far as valuation premium is concerned."

Going forward, Infosys expects revenues to be in the range of Rs 7,699 crore and Rs 7,810 crore (y-o-y growth of 10.8 per cent to 12.4 per cent) for the quarter ending September 30, 2011.

In addition, the company forecast its revenues would be in the range of Rs 31,777 crore and Rs 32,311 crore (y-o-y growth of 15.5 per cent to 17.5 per cent) for the fiscal ended March 31, 2012.