It bellwether Infosys Technologies Ltd revealed signs of a stabilising global economy in the course of the announcement of its results for the second quarter of the current fiscal year on Friday, notching up revenues ahead of negative projections and upping its revenue call for the fiscal year into a marginal growth zone.

Infosys announced a revenue of of Rs 5,585 crore for the quarter ended September 30, an year on year growth of 3.1 per cent and an improvement over earlier projections of a decline in revenue of 1.9 per cent to 0.1 per cent. The company registered a profit of Rs 1,540 crore, a year-on-year growth of 7.5 per cent, for the period.

However, better Infy numbers failed to cheer the market sentiment. After rising to Rs 2,211 in the morning session, Infosys shares closed 1.49 per cent lower at Rs 2,178.35 on the Bombay Stock Exchange on Friday. “Despite a decent start to the India Inc’s Q2 earnings session with Infosys Technologies announcing better than expected results today, the market witnessed heavy selling pressure across the board,” said Sharekhan research head Gaurav Dua.

The second quarter revenue and profits were 2.1 per cent and 0.9 per cent improvements on the numbers registered in the first quarter of the fiscal. In a recalibration of its earlier projection of a first ever fiscal with negative growth, Infosys is projecting revenues between Rs 21,961 crore and Rs 22,055 for the year 2009-10, a growth of 1.2 per cent to 1.7 per cent over last year.

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