Wipro shares fell as much as 6% before recovering most of those losses
Wipro shares fell more than 6 per cent on Thursday, a day after the IT company reported its financial earnings for the quarter ended March 31. On the BSE, the Wipro stock declined by as much as Rs 11.25 (6.03 per cent) to trade at Rs 175.30 at the weakest level in the first half of the day, compared with its close of Rs 186.55 the previous day. However, Wipro shares recovered most of those losses in late morning deals. At 11:11 am, Wipro shares traded at Rs 186.10 apiece on the bourse - down 0.24 per cent from the previous close - in line with the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex index which was down 0.20 per cent.
The IT company reported a fall of more than 5 per cent in net profit to Rs 2,326 crore for the January-March period post-market hours on Wednesday.
Bengaluru-based Wipro bore the brunt of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic at various levels.
Revenue from the IT services segment declined 1.0 per cent quarter-on-quarter to $2,073.7 million in the first quarter of financial year 2019-20 The IT services operating margin was at 17.6 per cent, down 80 basis points compared to the previous quarter.
Wipro said its IT services revenue were "negatively impacted by COVID-19 by approximately $14 -$16 million (0.7-0.8 per cent of revenue)".
Wipro did not provide revenue guidance for the current quarter, which ends on June 30, citing "the uncertainty around the course of COVID-19 pandemic".
Its board did not recommend any final dividend for the financial year. The company said the interim dividend of Rs 1 per share decided in January will be considered as the final dividend for the year. That meant the total dividend for the fiscal year 2019-20 remained Rs 1 per equity share.
Wipro has decided to defer pay hikes and promotions, usually done in June, and delay onboarding of fresh graduates as part of its cost-cutting measures to tide over the slowdown triggered by the Covid19 crisis.
As of Wednesday's closing price, Wipro shares are down 24.15 per cent so far this calendar year.
