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I.T Stocks Outlook for the week – 10 to 14.11.2014

I.T Stocks Outlook for the week – 10 to 14.11.2014

Stocks of information technology companies are expected to continue trading positive next week on upbeat US economic data released on Thursday. The US is the largest market for Indian IT services companies and economic revival there invariably means better business for IT companies in India.

In the Jul-Sep quarter, North America contributed 60.8% to Infosys' total revenue, while North America and Latin America together contributed 52.9% to Tata Consultancy Services' revenue. All IT stocks are either at or near their 52-week highs, which signifies a bullish trend for the sector.

During the week, Cognizant posted moderate Jul-Sep results, recording a 2.5% sequential growth in revenue to $2.58 bln. However, what really surprised investors was the company's lifting of its full-year guidance to 15% growth, which is also the upper end of Nasscom's 13-15% guidance for the IT sector.

Today, Infosys announced a strategic partnership with Tableau Software, under which the former will integrate the business analytics company's software into the solutions it deploys to help clients unlock the power of data.

During the week, Infosys also announced its plans to hire over 2,100 employees, including 600 graduates, in the US to support the growth of its business and enhance capabilities.

On Thursday, Wipro and NYSE-listed open source solutions provider Red Hat Inc announced global expansion of their partnership to accelerate deployment of open hybrid cloud solutions. As part of the expanded collaboration, Red Hat and Wipro will work together to develop and deliver "enterprise-grade cloud solutions to the market, and will also jointly deliver next-generation DevOps solutions for continuous integration and testing," Wipro said in a release.

Investors will continue to closely track the rupee as currency movement is crucial to IT companies. Typically, for every 1% change in the rupee-dollar equation, margins of Tier I Indian IT companies are impacted by 25-35 basis points.