Infosys shares lost up to 4 percent on Thursday morning trade on Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) after the IT services exporter's chief operating officer (COO) made a cautionary statement at an investor conference on Wednesday.
"Things have not dramatically changed since Q4, but given the volatile nature of business... there can be short term or quarterly bumps up and down," Pravin Rao said at the conference hosted by Citi, reports NDTVProfit.
The shares opened lower from the previous day's close of Rs. 1,238 and then fell to Rs. 1,192 within minutes, a loss of 3.71 percent from Wednesday closing price. The stock was trading at Rs. 1,197.20 at around 10.55 a.m., down 3.32 percent.
Revenues from healthcare and retail verticals could be hit during the current quarter, according to Rao.
While American and European retailers have reported poor results in the last few weeks, the company's healthcare vertical – which contributes about 8 percent to its overall revenues – could face problems due cost-cutting by its clients, he told at the conference, according to the website.
The cautionary note could impact its 2016-17 revenue guidance of 11.5 to 13.5 percent in constant currency terms.
"...any revenue growth miss in Q1 and Q2...could pose a threat to the yearly guidance and could lead to severe stock pressure as Infosys is one of the top holdings across both FII and DII portfolios," NDTVProfit quoted Girish Pai of Nirmal Bang Securities as saying.
In a note issued on Thursday, brokerage Angel Broking said the company will not see its topline affected by the recent developments. "Infosys in an update has mentioned that visa and compensation costs are likely to impact margins by 200bps in 1QFY2017...Infosys however is confident of achieving its FY2017 revenue growth guidance of 11.5-13.5% in CC (constant currency) terms despite conceding that the overall revenue environment remains pressured."
