Infosys stocks down nearly 5% after COO warns about 'quarterly bumps'

Infosys shares fell over 4% on Thursday after the company's senior management warned investors about potential volatility in the revenue growth over the next few quarters.

Speaking at the Citi India Investor Conference, Infosys chief operating officer (COO) UB Pravin Rao said the company would face volatility over the next few quarters, due to weaker spending from retail, energy and insurance sectors. 

"In the last couple of weeks, we have seen results from retail in both the US and Europe have not been good it's been probably the poorest  that we've seen in recent times. At this stage, we don't know how retailers will react. At the beginning of the year... we were optimistic now we're a little bit watchful on the retail space," Rao said.

He added the company continues to see challenges in the short-term in the insurance space.

"We have a good pipeline in financial services. Last year, barring insurance, financial services grew about 15% and  we expect that momentum to continue... manufacturing we continue to see good traction... energy continues to be a challenge, we don't expect recovery to have much impact on the spends," he said.

However, the country's second-largest software services firm was still on track to meet its full-year constant currency revenue guidance of 11.5-13.5%.

"We still remain confident of (our guidance of) 11.5-13.5%. But at the same time, given the volatile nature of our business, given the propensity of our clients to react immediately to some of the volatility, we will expect some short-term or quarterly bumps and ups and downs, but for the year, we remain confident," Rao said.

On Thursday, the stock of Infosys closed down 4.27% or Rs 52.85 at Rs 1,185.45 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

(With PTI Inputs)