HCL Technologies, India’s third largest IT services business, had its shares fall on Wednesday ahead of its earnings for the January-March quarter of the fiscal year 2022-23 (Q4FY23) on Thursday, April 20, 2023.

At roughly 3:00 pm, HCL Tech shares were trading at Rs 1,040.30 per share, down Rs 23.55 or 2.21% from Monday’s close of Rs 1,063.85 per share, and had hit a low of Rs 1,037.75 per share on the BSE.

The stock erased yesterday’s gains as the Street expects HCL Tech to report weak Q4 earnings, as do the top two IT services companies, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and Infosys.

HCL Technologies is slated to release its March quarter earnings after market hours on Thursday. Analysts predict the IT behemoth to announce a single-digit increase in net profit for the quarter on the back of a double-digit increase in net sales. HCL Tech may aim for 5-7% sales growth in constant currency terms and 18-20% Ebit margins in FY24, according to analysts. The board of the IT conglomerate will examine and announce the final dividend for fiscal year 23 (if any).

Investors have been hammering IT equities since TCS reported its Q4 earnings on April 12, followed by Infosys results on April 13, which were much below estimates.

On Wednesday, Nifty IT was among the top sector laggards, falling more than 1% on the NSE. Aside from HCL Tech, giants such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra were also down 1-2% on the NSE.

HCL Tech has dropped roughly 5% since April 12, from Rs 1,094.5 per share to today’s low. The stock has been flat year to date, down 2.5%.