IT firms' Q1 revenue may slide: report

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Revenues of major IT firms are expected to be hit by up to 7 per cent in rupee terms in the April-June period as appreciation in the Indian currency against the dollar during the quarter would impact negatively the margins compared to the previous quarter, says a report.

"US dollar-revenues should be flat to marginally down quarter-on-quarter, with rupee/USD appreciation leading to rupee revenues being down 5-7 per cent Q/Q," a PTI report said quoting the Asia Pacific Equity Research report of JP Morgan.

Besides, another report said that IT companies would also go slow on hiring front as they would prefer to make optimum utilization of the available manpower as the demand situation is still unclear.

"Hiring should continue to be slow - companies continue to focus on utilization in absence of clear demand trends," it quoted global financial services firm Citigroup.

According to Citigroup, Infosys is likely to post a de-growth of 6.5 per cent sequentially, while Wipro and TCS are likely to post a decline of 5.3 per cent and 6.2 per cent respectively in revenues in rupee terms, the report added.

It also said Infosys performance may be weaker than TCS or Wipro due to investments in sales and marketing and limited hedging.