TCS climbs as revenue beat, AI momentum fuel recovery hopes

Shares of Tata Consultancy ​Services advanced more than 4% a day ‌after India’s top software services exporter beat ​quarterly revenue estimates with ⁠deal wins and rising AI-related revenue raising hopes for a gradual earnings recovery.

TCS was trading 1.8% ‌higher at 2,086 rupees at 9:59 a.m. IST in Mumbai, ‌powering the benchmark Nifty 50 ‌to ⁠rise 1.1%. The IT index was ⁠up about 2%.

The IT firm’s results kick started the first-quarter earnings season for India’s $315-billion IT ​sector, which has seen ‌earnings downgrades on slowing client spending and worries that advanced AI tools could disrupt business models of software companies.

TCS’ ‌quarterly sales rose 14% year-over-year ​to 722.75 billion rupees ($7.58 billion), and CEO K. Krithivasan said he ⁠was “optimistic” about a turnaround in tech spending among manufacturing and life sciences clients ‌in the second quarter.

The IT firm’s order book stood at $9.5 billion while its annualised AI revenue rose to more than $2.6 billion.

CLSA said the firm’s revenue growth was better-than-expected, helped by ‌strength in banking, financial services and insurance, high-tech ​and regional markets.

HSBC said the outlook for manufacturing, pharma and ⁠energy was “incrementally positive”.

Analysts at Nomura said deal ⁠wins, including an $800 million mega deal, provided reasonable visibility for a ‌growth rebound, even as macro uncertainty weighed on the near-term outlook.