IT drags index down : Infy sheds 2%

Indian shares fell 0.5 percent on Friday, led by export-focused software services after bellwether Infosys Technologies said the business environment was tough.

Infosys beat market expectations with a 21 percent rise in quarterly profit, and raised its full-year revenue forecast in local currency but kept it flat in dollar terms.

"The environment continues to be challenging. We are seeing bad news coming out of banking and retail," Chief Operating Officer S.D. Shibulal told reporters, adding that IT spending was "flat or marginally decreasing".

"There are delays in decision making."

V.K. Sharma, head of research at Anagram Stock Broking, said the outlook disappointed investors and underscored the increasingly difficult business conditions, particularly in the United States, the main market for Infosys.

"Infosys has told the markets nothing new. The change in rupee-based guidance is just a factor of currency," he said.

Shares in Infosys initially rose as much as 3.9 percent, but quickly fell and was 2.1 percent at 1,768.30 rupees by 11:34 a.m.

The main 30-share BSE index was down 0.45 percent, or 63.27 points at 13,862.97, with 17 components down, after rising 1 percent early.

Leading software exporter Tata Consultancy was down 2.8 percent at 844.75 rupees, while smaller rivals Wipro fell 2.5 percent to 420.10 rupees and Satyam lost 3.5 percent to 462.40 rupees.

The four tech stocks have a total weightage of more than 15 percent in the main index.

The BSE IT index, which has outperformed the broader market this year, was down 2 percent.

Investors were also cautious ahead of May industrial output, which is forecast to have grown an annual 7.2 percent, holding steady near April's 7.0 percent but well below the double-digit levels seen in 2006 and early 2007.

Bank stocks were down on fears of further monetary tightening as inflation quickened. ICICI Bank fell 2.6 percent to 601 rupees and HDFC Bank was down 0.8 percent at 1,046.40 rupees.

Data showed annual inflation was at 11.89 percent in the 12 months to June 28, above the previous week's annual rise of 11.63 percent.

In the broader market, 1,041 gainers were ahead of 930 losers on volume of 82.9 million shares.

The 50-share NSE index was down 0.43 percent at 4,144.50.

Elsewhere in the region, Karachi's 100-share index was down 0.68 percent at 11,693.49, but Colombo's All-share index rose 0.34 percent to 2,413.83

Tata Steel debuts on Fortune 500 list

New York, July 10 (IANS) Thanks to its acquisition of the Corus group, Tata Steel has entered the Fortune 500 list at rank 315, while India's largest corporate group Reliance Industries jumped 63 places to reach 206.

Tata Steel, part of the Ratan Tata-led Tata Group, has also been named as the company with the highest revenue growth of more than 350 percent over the past year, thanks to the consolidation of Corus' revenues with its balance sheet. Tata acquired Anglo-Dutch steelmaker Corus in October 2006.

Companies qualify for the Fortune list on the basis of their revenues. The rankings are based on 2007 audited revenues.

Tata Steel had an annual revenue of $25,707 million. The Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries posted $35,915 million.

Reliance and Tata Steel are the only two Indian companies in the private sector to figure among the Fortune 500, the other five are in the public sector.

Reliance, in fact, comes behind Indian Oil, which is ranked 116 with a revenue of $57,427 million. The other PSUs on the list are Bharat Petroleum (287), Hindustan Petroleum (290), ONGC (335) and the State Bank of India (380).

The US-based retail chain Wal-Mart continues to remain the world's biggest corporate with revenues of $378 billion. Oil majors Exxon Mobile and Royal Dutch Shell follow Wal-Mart on the global list with revenues of $373 billion and $355 billion respectively.

There were fewer American companies on the list this time (153 as compared to 162 last year) while 29 Chinese companies made it to the list, the best ever performance by China.