Will the Indian tech boys put up a good show this season?

All bets are on Infosys as the tech major kicks in the earning season tomorrow. While there is a lot of concern over a probable US slowdown, expectations are high of a good show from the Indian tech boys. Plus, a probable guidance increase from Infosys is also expected. Sandeep Nanda, Head of Research at Sharekhan and Parul Inamdar of Prabhudas Lilladher give their perspective. 

Sandeep Nanda informs that they have set a 12-month price target on Infosys at about Rs 2300. For Infosys, Nanda's topline expectation is at about Rs 863 crore for this quarter.

Nanda likes NIIT Technologies and 3i Infotech in the midcap technology space. Parul Inamdar says that they hold a positive view about Infosys and have given a 'buy' rating for the stock.

Excerpts of CNBC-TV18's exclusive interview with Sandeep Nanda and Parul Inamdar:

Q: What would you like the management of Infosys to say?

Nanda: I think there are two-three things; one is that there has been talk about billing rates. Some companies, such as Infosys Technologies and Satyam Computer Services have been talking about billing rates during the quarter and we would like to see some more colour on that.

Second, there have been telecom M&As (Merger and Acquisition) in the last few months, we want to see the impact of that and understand it better. And of course, how the US macro situation impacts demand and pricing in future. I think that's the other issue.

Q: What is your topline and bottomline expectation this quarter? What is the EPS target that you have for Infosys?

Nanda: For Infosys this quarter, we are looking at about Rs 863 crore and that is significantly higher than the management guidance. I think the numbers are not very different from consensus and it really depends on how the management is able to beat that.

Q: Have you worked out a 12-month price target for it?

Nanda: Yes, we have a 12-month price target on Infosys, which is about Rs 2300. We need to look at the targets, post the results and the guidance. 

Q: Among midcaps that you have been tracking, 3i Infotech is one stock that you like. What do you expect to hear, in terms of earnings?

Nanda: For 3i Infotech, we are looking at about 7% QoQ growth. I think the key issue here, will be to see how much it will grow organically because there have been quite a few acquisitions in the past few months. So we need to see how they will get integrated and how much of growth will be core organic growth.

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