INTROSPECTION ON INFOSYS RESULT

Ultimately the tension is over, Infosys result is out. though the result is not bad enough, but the concern is about the guidance for the next quarter. The guidance is based on the present rupee valuation and any appreciation of rupee may hamper its earnings. Many market observers are really upset by it and the stock reacted by going down by almost 4% at 2:15 PM today and pulled the entire IT pack with it. The major downward puller of Sensex today is Infosys.

Infosys management squarely put the blame on appreciating rupee and came out as: “This is an extraordinary quarter as the rupee moved by 7%. We assumed a guidance of 43.10 earlier, now the rupee average for the first quarter is 46.6. We have lost around Rs 287 crore in revenues for the first quarter. For the whole year, from the guidance we would have lost around Rs 1,000 crore. So, it has been an extraordinary quarter and that’s why we have revised the rupee guidance for the full year” V Balakrishnan, Chief Financial Officer, Infosys .

Market is certainly not happy with the explanation, and probably trying to put the money in different sector where more than 20% growth is possible in the next quarter. Pundits are not writing the stock off, and have enough confidence in it, as it was exhibited in past. JP Sinha of Ambit said "The fundamentals are still intact and the entire fall is led by the rupee, which has appreciated by almost 6.5%. I am not willing to write it off and it is a good time to buy."

Now it is introspection time for small investors. To put more money or come out of the IT pack I consider there are still many milestones to achieve by the Indian IT Industry. To identify I started to look at the earning estimated put up by Broker Houses for my stock HCL Technology . The findings are below from indiaearnings.com

ABN AMRO : net profit is seen down 11.2% at Rs 267.5 crore (Rs 2675 million), QoQ. During the same quarters its revenues are seen up 0.9% at Rs 1590.8 crore (Rs 15908 million).

M Oswal :net profit is seen up 1.4% at Rs 336.5 crore (Rs 3365 million) YoY. During the same quarters its net sales are seen up 2.2% at Rs 1611.2 crore (Rs 16112 million) in the corresponding quarter previous year

JP Morgan: net profit is seen up11.3% at Rs 347.4crore (Rs 3474million), QoQ. During the same quarter its net sales are seen up 0.9% at Rs 1590.8crore (Rs 15908million) QoQ. net profit is seen up 24.9% at Rs 376.1 crore (Rs 3761 million) versus Rs 301.2 crore (Rs 3,012 million) QoQ. During the same quarters its revenues are seen up 2.2% at Rs 1611.3 crore (Rs 16,113 million) versus Rs 1577.1 crore (Rs 15,771 million) in the previous quarter.

I was about to leave the IT scene today then suddenly I saw this.

There is a major accumulation of HCL Technology today. Lets wait till the result of HCL Technology is out, risk taking appetite is neccessary in Stock Market. I'll keep a stop loss at around Rs. 330/-.

IT STOCKS FOLLOW CYCLE

Tomorrow is an important day for market- Infosys result day. Market is going up and on its way up catching many experts on the wrong foot. The result will determine whether the market will go further up or may pause a bit with correction.
I am dependent on the result, for the IT stock HCL Technology, I have in my portfolio.
Good result will buoy it up. Market is already anticipating some good result, seeing the movement of IT stocks in last two sessions.

Stocks follow cycle. A company grows, matures and then declines. Best time to buy a stock is when it grows. At present it is India shining story, so most Indian stocks are growing. Rate of growth depends on management and business model. Some stocks have unique business model which is difficult and even impossible to copy. A good management can change the scenario of a business.

At present the growing Indian IT industry have some very good business model and robust management, which is evident from the growth of the companies. The top five Infosys, TCS, Wipro, Satyam and HCL Technology generally lead the way for the smaller companies.

I wonder if Rakesh Jhunjhunwala has some stake in IT industry. If not, why?

We are not at par with Chinese in manufacturing sector, it is their forte. But IT and ITES is our forte, if it goes wrong, there will be some grim picture to portray. Lets keep my finger crossed and ears open, and ready for action at the drop of a hat.

Am I as nervous as the market?

IS SENSEX ONLY A NUMBER?

Yesterday another milestone (15,000) achieved by Sensex or Indian Capital Market. Though market pundits tried to down play it by statingthat it was just another number waiting to be crossed, everyone including them were ecstatic. The Really Small and Helpless Investor (RSHI) will have renewed believe in the market.

Literally Sensex./ Nifty means nothing to small investors with very small amounts to invest in pricey Large-cap stocks. The dismal amount of dividends the index stocks yields in comparison to money invested is nothing. One of my friends (another RSHI) invested some good money around twenty Grands in ten shares of Infosys, the recent dividend he received was some pittance sixty five rupees only. It seems and is really worthless to have ten shares of an costly index stock, most of that sixty five rupees will be taken away by bank as transfer commission. I wonder why the dividends are not deposited in bank account directly. All Demat account holders must have a bank account and must be submitted while opening the Demat.

You can see the dividend declared by ONGC is another pinch of salt to injury. Had they not declared the dividends the stock price would have gone up leaving the small investors benefited. He would not have to deposit his cheque which the Bank Clark frown upon. The dividend payment policy is beneficial only to Big Investors and (for PSU) the Government, not to small investors. This is one of the main reasons the Really Small and Helpless Investor (RSHI) stays away from big index stocks, though the Large-cap stocks have shown excellent momentum in recent months.

The less costly Mid-cap and Micro-cap (Oh terminology! actually Small-cap) stocks do not provide this dilemma. The profits in most cases are utilized in expansion and stock price reacts.

(RSHI should preferably stay away from PSUs, I will have a public musing in this blog in coming days.)

I am very happy about the performance of Yes Bank, the run is not smooth but that’s a stock should do, correcting itself while going up.

Concern was about my second investment of HCL Technology, but CLSA predicted earning growth should be 62% for the next result. Only thing is rupee devaluation, Infy will lead the way as everybody believes. Probably wishes are shy away.

I purchased 100 stocks of IDBI at 117.90/- yesterday (with little conviction that market will not go down), but I have my own doubts. It was a spurt decision, will I repent later?