BENGALURU (Reuters) – India’s software services bellwether Infosys Ltd on Monday suspended revenue and margin forecasts for the financial year 2021, blaming uncertainties stemming from the coronavirus outbreak.
The company also joined rivals Tata Consulting Services and Wipro to warn on challenging quarters ahead amid lockdowns by many nations to check the spread of the virus.
The United States and Europe, the two biggest markets for the Indian IT industry, have taken the biggest hit from the coronavirus pandemic as lockdowns to contain the virus have brought their economies virtually to a halt.
Bigger rival Tata Consulting Services said last week the outbreak had “completely reversed” the positive momentum from the first half of the fiscal year, while Wipro did not give a forecast for the current quarter due to the crisis.
However, Infosys reported a 7% rise in revenue from its financial services business, which helped boost overall revenue to 232.67 billion rupees.
That helped the Bengaluru-based company report a fourth-quarter profit of 43.21 billion rupees ($564.56 million), compared with a profit of 40.74 billion rupees a year earlier.
The company’s shares closed 3.9% higher, although the broader market closed flat.
(Reporting by Derek Francis in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)