Cognizant Technology Q2: IT stocks gain up to 3 per cent

Information technology (IT) stocks on Tuesday gained up to 3 per cent a day after Cognizant Technology posted 21 per cent jump in net profit for the quarter ended June 30, and gave a bullish annual revenue outlook.
Cognizant has pipped Infosys Technologies to become the second-largest software company in India with a revenue of $1.79 billion (about Rs 9,938 crore) for the April-June quarter this year.
Shares of Tata Consultancy Services moved up by 2.86 per cent to settle at Rs 1,264.60 on the Bombay Stock Exchange, while Infosys gained 1.9 per cent to close at Rs 2,255.70.
Among others, Wipro was up by 0.83 per cent, HCL Tech gained 1.46 per cent, Oracle Financial Services rose 0.75 per cent, Tech Mahindra moved up by 0.67 per cent and the stock of Hexaware Technologies closed 0.44 per cent up.
Following the gains in these stocks, the BSE IT index settled 1.95 per cent up at 5,449.97.
"Shares of IT companies performed well today on the back of strong set of numbers posted by Cognizant for the June quarter," Milan Bavishi Head Research Inventure Growth & Securities said.
For the September quarter, Cognizant anticipates its revenues to be at least $1.875 billion, while for the 2012, it maintained outlook for revenue to be at least $7.34 billion (at least 20 per cent growth compared to 2011).
With a bullish annual revenue outlook, Cognizant may remain at the number two spot as Infosys has given a muted guidance of 5 per cent growth for the year, given the uncertainty in the global environment. Infosys expects revenues to be $7.343 billion in FY13.
Though Cognizant is not listed in India, 75 per cent of its over 1.45 lakh employees are based in India and is often referred to as an Indian entity.

Hexaware Technologies - Good show continues - Edelweiss

Hexaware Technologies - Good show continues - Edelweiss

The Q2CY12 results of Hexaware Technologies (Hexaware) were in line with estimates as revenues stood at USD91.2mn, up 3.6% QoQ (4.2% volume growth) vs our and Street estimate of USD92mn. EBITDA margin expanded 50bps to 22.9%, ahead of our estimate of 22.5%. The company seems to be reaping benefits of investments made over the past two years as the decent guidance for Q3CY12 (1.4%-3.0%) in an uncertain environment bears testimony to the same. We believe its continuous investments in strengthening front-end sales team and focus on improvement in operational parameters would drive growth from hereon. Maintain 'BUY' with target price of INR140. Inline quarter on revenue, margin front Hexaware's Q2CY12 revenues at USD91.2mn were marginally lower than our and Street estimate of USD92mn. The sequential growth of 3.6% (4.4% in CC) was driven by a volume growth of 4.2%. The beat on PAT (INR890mn versus estimate of INR834mn) was due to lower forex losses. It has won a large deal of USD100mn spread over four years; revenues from this deal are expected to accrue from early CY13. Further, it is actively chasing four more large deals. Growth to be driven by investments, operational focus The company has reiterated that it will continue to make investments, particularly in new technology areas in order to drive growth. Further, Hexaware plans to continue to invest in S&M for gaining higher wallet share within clients, particularly beyond its top 20 clients (thus strengthened sales team by 11 in H1CY12). We believe this, coupled with its continued focus on improving operational parameters, will enable it to drive growth and maintain operating margin. Outlook and valuations: Momentum continues; maintain 'BUY' While the Q2CY12 results were in line with estimates but lacked any positive surprise, we believe the momentum remains intact for the company, led by a strong order book build up, besides its continuous investments in the front-end. We forecast 20% USD revenue growth with EBITDA margin of 21%. Higher tax rate of 22% (20% earlier) leads to 4% cut in our CY13 EPS to INR12.7. We maintain 'BUY /SO' with TP of INR140 (11x CY13E earnings).

Mid-tier IT cos like Hexaware, Zensar outperform biggies Infosys, TCS, Wipro in last 5 quarters

MUMBAI: India's mid-tier information technology firms have reported better sales and operating profit growth compared to the biggies in the business at the aggregate level in each of the past five quarters, riding on their intrinsic strengths of operating in niche segments and strong demand in select verticals and bucking the trend of smaller companies taking a beating during a downturn.
At a time when industry leaders such as Infosys and Wipro have provided a sluggish future growth guidance, a clutch of mid-tier IT companies sound far more confident about growth in the next few quarters of FY13. Both analysts and industry officials reckon that this trend is likely to be maintained for at least the next couple of years, which could lead to an improved valuation of these companies.

An ETIG analysis of 17 tier-2 IT firms, which announced their financials for the quarter to June 2012, shows a growth of 38.4 per cent in revenue and an impressive rise of 78 per cent in net profit at the aggregate level from a year ago. For the top four IT companies - TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCL Technologies - sales rose 33.5 per cent, while profit grew 43.4 per cent. Besides, half of the companies among the 14 tier-2 players that reported double-digit topline growth surpassed revenue growth reported by each of the top four firms, the analysis shows.

Mid-tier companies such as Geometric, KPIT Cummins, Hexaware Technologies, Mastek, NIIT Technologiesand Zensar Technologies reported a strong performance for the June 2012 quarter. In contrast, top tier players such as Infosys and Wipro reported deceleration in sales and profit growth. Though their relatively smaller scale of operations has indeed helped, the changing trend in vendor allocation by global clients, a favourable currency movement, and strong demand in select verticals, which are niche areas for medium and small IT vendors helped them record a stellar performance.

Industry officials also say that long-term management stability in these firms has been critical to their success. "The large players that are not doing well have seen management churn. If you look at mid-size companies that are doing well, they have all had consistent management," says Pradeep Udhas, who is partner and head of IT-BPO consulting firm KPMG. According to him, a stable leadership has helped the smaller companies to specialise and compete with large companies. What counts in the final analysis, he says, are leadership and the ability to be agile.

Select tier-two or mid-rung companies were also able to expand their operating margins against the backdrop of tight IT budget spending. "Compared with top-tier companies, small and medium firms have more levers to improve performance - be it tweaking of employee matrix to include more freshers or reduction in selling and administrative costs," says Angel Broking's IT analyst Ankita Somani.

She draws attention to the fact that historically, smaller IT companies had just over 10 per cent freshers in the employee pyramid compared to over 30 per cent for the top IT companies. A higher proportion of employees with less than three years of experience helps in bringing down operating costs.

The robust show of these companies has not gone unnoticed by the big daddies in the industry. Rajeev Gupta, president of Fujitsu Consulting India (FCI), the Indian arm of global IT solutions firm Fujitsu says that the smaller firms are more agile when it comes to projects worth less than $10 million. "The robust show of tier-2 firms is not only because of a depreciating home currency, it is also about the way clients have started allocating a chunk of their projects to smaller companies."

Global clients are now more than willing to open their doors to second-rung Indian IT companies that are more than willing to take up smaller assignments. "The large IT firms don't go after $5-10 million deals, which we are quite happy to accept," says Zensar Technologies' Ganesh Natarajan. Deals worth $50-100 million are fewer as companies are cutting back on spending or postponing investments, he says.

Their upbeat performance has also helped such companies control employee attrition rates. Most mid-tier firms, which announced results for the quarter to June, showed lower attrition rates. Hexaware, headquartered in Mumbai, reported 9.6 per cent rate of attrition, the lowest compared with 12-16 per cent reported by the top four IT firms. "We declared a salary increase of 10.5 per cent this year, but it is not only about money. Employees are excited about the kind of projects we are handling," says Hexaware's chairman Atul Nishar.

Hexaware bets on UK, new verticals to lead mid-tier IT growth

.

After nine quarters of positive growth, the mid-tier leader is confident of a 20% year-on-year (yoy) growth in dollar revenues for fiscal 2013.

Hexaware Q2 net rises 48% on higher revenues

Software service provider hexaware technologies has reported a 48 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 89.03 crore for the second-quarter ended june 2012 against the same period last year.

Click here to read more…

Alert For Clients Service For Mansukh Securities

Introduction
Mansukh Securities has brought Alert for Clients Service for its customers to remain informed and connected with
the stock market while on move.

Jaamoon Alc Features:
1. Conditional Alerts - This feature allows users to set alerts based on price trends.
2. Periodic Alerts - This feature allows users to set time-based alerts.
3. Market Open and Market Close Alerts - This feature allows users to set alerts based on Market Open and
Market Close conditions.

Steps To Register And Use Alc Platform

a.    Click http://www.moneysukh.com.

b.    Click

c.    Click on New user click here and register yourself by entering your mobile number, first name and last name.

d.    SMS having your username and system generated password will be sent to your registered mobile number.

e.    Using the login details you can now enter username and password and click Signin.

f.    Once you login into the application for the first time, you will be asked to change your password. It is recommended to change the password although you may ignore the warning by clicking Ignore.

g.    You can then click “Create alert” link to create your own alerts

h.    You can also view the alerts you have created using “View alerts” link

The Indian Gold Market Still Glitters

The Indian Gold market has reaffirmed its dominance in 2010 and will continue in 2011. Expect China to overtake the sub-continent in demand for gold. The love of gold in India goes far beyond a simple source of future profits. It is an expression of wealth, financial security and family stability. It also carries religious overtones. Gold remains the wealth of the wife -men only inheriting assets. It represents her and her family's financial security. It is difficult to make a distinction between investment and jewelry demand because in India, these two ideas are inseparable. Gold jewelry is usually 24-carat.

Indian Gold Demand18,000 tonnes of gold in India are held by households. Indian gold demand has grown 25% despite a 400% Rupee price rise in the last decade. Gold demand is strong and is expected to increase 30% by 2020. By 2020, cumulative annual demand for gold in India will increase to in excess of 1,200 tonnes or approximately Rs. 2.5 trillion, at current price levels. India's rapid growth, which will have significant impact on income and savings, will lead to more gold being purchased by almost 3% per annum over the next decade. Indian growth is expected to be around 10% GDP in the next decade, which will feed through into gold demand/savings.

India is now experiencing the rapid growth of the Middle class and urbanization. This movement has quickened its pace in the last ten years to the extent that the U.N. believes that 41% of India's total population will be living in towns and cities by 2030--up from the current level of 30%. More importantly, a good proportion of these will join the middle classes.

Gold Price PerformanceConsider the belief that 'gold brings good fortune'. The performance of gold over the last decade appears to have highlighted that belief in a remarkable way. In 2000, the gold price was just under $300. It now stands at $1,525. Imagine you are the mother of the bride and look at your gold holdings and at today's value. Wouldn't you feel this had served your family well and must surely serve your daughters family as well? This belief will continue for generations to come and Indian demand will continue growing.

Tracking equity markets and the path of other investments alongside gold over the same period confirmed the wisdom of gold investing.Indian gold investors are far more advanced than their developed world counterparts who have not yet appreciated gold's value to the same extent.

Conclusion:Because gold is more than just money, its price is irrelevant in light of its demand. This demand is limited by an individual's access to money to purchase it. Indian demand for gold will be driven (like in the last decade) by savings and real income levels, not by price. In local currency terms, Indian jewelry demand more than doubled in 2010 to Rs.1,342 billion compared to Rs. 669 billion in 2009.

Likewise, gold will continue to be purchased in the future Indian wedding seasons. It is all part of the social fabric of India. A wedding is the social highlight of the nation and can last for days. 50% of the population is under 25, and there will be 15 million weddings per annum over the next decade. At present gold prices and exchange rates, this will drive around 500 tonnes per annum with a further 500 tonnes of existing gold being gifted by one family to the next, which is not recorded in recycling.

“Always live within your income, even if you have to borrow money to do so”

Options Strategies To Know

It is too common for traders who jump into the options game with little or no understanding of how many options strategies are available which can minimize their risk and maximize return. With a little bit of extra effort, however, traders can learn how to take advantage of the flexibility and full power of options as a trading vehicle. While keeping this in the mind, we have tried to gather most useful & popular option strategies which we hope will shorten the learning curve and point you in the right direction.  There are some option strategies which might be useful for traders to hedge their positions and minimize the risk. In this addition of our market tutorial we will discuss only the type and brief description of some option strategies however in further additions we will discuss in detail.

Covered Call
Apart from purchasing a naked call option, you can also engage in a basic covered call or buy-write strategy. In this strategy, you would purchase the assets outright, and simultaneously sell a call option on those  same  assets.  Your  volume  of assets  owned  should  be equivalent to the number of assets underlying the call option.Investors will often use this position when they have a short-term position and a neutral opinion on the assets, and are looking to generate additional profits, or protect against a potential decline in the underlying asset's value.

Married Put
In a married put strategy, an investor who purchases a particular shares, simultaneously purchases a put option for an equivalent number of shares. Investors will use this strategy when they are bullish on the asset's price and wish to protect themselves against potential short-term losses. This strategy essentially functions like an insurance policy, and establishes a floor should the asset's price plunge dramatically.

Bull Call Spread
In a bull call spread strategy, an investor will simultaneously buy call options at a specific strike price and sell the same number of calls at a higher strike price. Both call options will have the same expiration month and underlying asset. This type of vertical spread strategy is often used when an investor is bullish and expects a moderate rise in the price of the underlying asset.

Bear Put Spread
The bear put spread strategy is another form of vertical spread. In this strategy, the investor will simultaneously purchase put options as a specific strike price and sell the same number of puts at a lower strike price. Both options would be for the same underlying asset and have the same expiration date. This method is used when the trader is bearish and expects the underlying asset's price to decline. It offers both limited gains and limited losses.

Long Straddle
A long straddle options strategy is when an investor purchases both a call and put option with the same strike price, underlying asset and expiration date simultaneously. An investor will often use this strategy when he or she believes the price of the underlying asset will move significantly, but is unsure of which direction the move will take. This strategy allows the investor to maintain unlimited gains, while the loss is limited to the cost of both options contracts.

Long Strangle
In a long strangle options strategy, the investor purchases a call and put option with the same maturity and underlying asset, but with different strike prices. The put strike price will typically be below the strike price of the call option, and both options will be out of the money. An investor who uses this strategy believes the underlying asset's price will experience a large movement, but is unsure of which direction the move will take. Losses are limited to the costs of both options

Butterfly Spread
All the strategies up to this point have required a combination of two different  positions  or contracts.  In a butterfly  spread options strategy, an investor will combine both a bull spread strategy and a bear spread strategy, and use three different strike prices.

Iron Butterfly
The final options strategy we will demonstrate here is the iron butterfly. In this strategy, an investor will combine either a long or short straddle with the simultaneous purchase or sale of a strangle. Although similar to a butterfly spread, this strategy differs because it uses both calls and puts, as opposed to one or the other. Profit and loss are both limited within a specific range, depending on the strike prices of the options used. Investors will often use out-of-the-money options in an effort to cut costs while limiting risk.

“There are three ways to obtain wealth: inheritance, luck, and hard work. None is guaranteed, but you have no influence over the first two”