The company’s stock ended down 2.32 per cent to close at Rs 1,225.20 on the National Stock Exchange. Infosys in July this year, at the end of the first quarter, had projected a revenue growth of 19 to 21 per cent. This has been revised to 13.1 per cent to 15.2 per cent, company officials said at the announcement of results for the second quarter.

“We have revised our dollar revenue guidance to reflect the current economic situation and the drastic depreciation of major global currencies against the dollar,” Infosys CEO and managing director Kris Gopalakrishnan said.

Nearly 3 per cent of the lowered projection is attributed to the currency impact while another 3 per cent is a result of external environment, CFO V Balakrishnan said.

However, the business environment, despite being challenging, is far from gloomy and offers companies like Infosys interesting opportunities even in the hammered banking and financial services sector, Infosys officials said.

The company outlined post merger integration work, cost arbitrage and consulting work in the financial sector among key opportunities despite the slump.

During the quarter ended September 30, Infosys posted revenues of Rs 5,418 crore and a net profit of Rs 1,432 crore — recording year-on-year growth of 32 per cent and 30 per cent respectively.

Compared to the first quarter of the current fiscal, revenues and net profit reported on Friday saw a growth of 11.6 per cent and 10 per cent respectively. In dollar terms the company registered a 19 per cent growth in revenue in Q2 at $1,216 million. “We added 40 new clients. Despite adverse market conditions our pricing remained stable during the last quarter,'” chief operating officer S D Shibulal said. As many as 10 deals of reasonable sizes were clinched, he added.

None of Infosys’ financial and banking sector clients were facing solvency issues but liquidity issues exist for most clients as the sector consolidates, head of the banking and financial services business at Infosys Ashok Vemuri said.

As part of a long-term strategy to reduce dependence on the US market the company continued to increase the Europe component of its business. “There is a lot of headroom in Europe when compared to the US,” Gopalakrishnan said. The company is looking to bring its ratio of business from US, Europe, India and other parts to a 40:40:20 figure from the current 61:28:12, officials said.

Board member and head of HRD, education and research T V Mohandas Pai said that “irrational exuberance” marked by demands for high salaries has begun to erode in the face of the global crisis and attrition rates are dropping. The current environment has put engineering and manufacturing firms in competition with IT firms for new talent, he said.