Infosys Technologies, which kick-starts the earnings season every year, forecast a dip in margins in the short term, even as it looks at healthy revenue growth for the current fiscal.
The company attributed the possible blip in margins to a strong rupee, which pulled down its fourth quarter profit for the year ended March 2010 by nearly one per cent to Rs 1,600 crore, compared with the same period last year.
For the first quarter of the fiscal, the IT bellwether said income will grow between 8.2 per cent and 9 per cent, resulting in figures between Rs 5,919 crore and Rs 5,963 crore. For the entire fiscal, income is expected to grow between 9 per cent and 11 per cent or between Rs 24,796 crore and Rs 25,239 crore. Earnings per share are expected to decline to a growth of 2.1 per cent.
A stronger rupee, coupled with the company's commitment to increase compensation, is expected to bring down margins by 150 basis points in the first quarter of 2010-11.