TCS shares fall nearly 3% after earnings announcement

New Delhi: Shares of Tata Consultancy Service (TCS) declined nearly 3 per cent in initial trade on Tuesday after the company's December quarter results failed to cheer investors.

The stock fell 2.67 per cent to Rs 3,231 apiece on the BSE.

At the NSE, it declined 2.70 per cent to Rs 3,230.10 apiece.

It was the biggest laggard among the Sensex and Nifty components.

The 30-share BSE Sensex quoted 437 points or 0.72 per cent lower at 60,310.31 in morning trade.

"TCS has given a muted quarter where despite the growth in revenue from operations, the same is not reflected in the profitability. The last quarter of the fiscal remains a key watch out as the macro-economic environment changes will bring clarity across economies," said Urmi Shah, Analyst, Samco Securities.

India's largest IT services company, TCS, reported an 11 per cent rise in December quarter net profit to Rs 10,846 crore, restricted by a narrowing of profit margins, but sounded sanguine about the deal pipeline.

Its overall revenue rose 19.1 per cent to Rs 58,229 crore for the reporting quarter, but it was a 0.5 per cent narrowing of the operating profit margin to 24.5 per cent that limited the overall profit growth.

"TCS delivered better-than-expected revenue growth in Q3, while margins came a tad below our expectations," according to a report by Emkay Global Financial Services.