Rana Gupta, Senior Portfolio Manager and India Equity Specialist at Manulife Investment Management expects the topline growth of information technology companies to remain subdued in high single digits this year.It will take another two to three years to be clear about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on software services, Gupta noted in a conversation with CNBC-TV18.He believes IT stocks will continue to behave as defensives in the short term..The revenue of the telecom space, Gupta believes, will start growing, while the costs spike for the companies may not be much.
"That should lead to pretty good cash flows for the sector and the leading companies in the sector,” he said.On June 28, Bharti Airtel raised tariffs across plans by 10-21%, a day after its competitor Reliance Jio increased its mobile plan rates by 12-25%.This is the first price hike since December 2021, and the new rates will start on July 3.Vodafone Idea also raised the prices of all its prepaid and postpaid plans by 10-20%.Gupta said while the tariff hike was expected, Jio's hike was better than expected, and Airtel’s was lower than estimates.Gupta also shared his expectations from the Budget later this month.He hopes for some announcements that could prove beneficial for the consumption sector and private banking.“This time, the government has got a lot of fiscal room.
We would expect some allocation to revenue expenditure while maintaining capital expenditure, but as an incremental delta for revenue expenditure should be better and that should be positive for some of the consumer durable and private banking names, which has underperformed so far.”For the entire interview, watch the accompanying video
Rana Gupta, Senior Portfolio Manager and India Equity Specialist at Manulife Investment Management expects the topline growth of information technology companies to remain subdued in high single digits this year.It will take another two to three years to be clear about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on software services, Gupta noted in a conversation with CNBC-TV18.He believes IT stocks will continue to behave as defensives in the short term..The revenue of the telecom space, Gupta believes, will start growing, while the costs spike for the companies may not be much."That should lead to pretty good cash flows for the sector and the leading companies in the sector,” he said.On June 28, Bharti Airtel raised tariffs across plans by 10-21%, a day after its competitor Reliance Jio increased its mobile plan rates by 12-25%.This is the first price hike since December 2021, and the new rates will start on July 3.Vodafone Idea also raised the prices of all its prepaid and postpaid plans by 10-20%.Gupta said while the tariff hike was expected, Jio's hike was better than expected, and Airtel’s was lower than estimates.Gupta also shared his expectations from the Budget later this month.He hopes for some announcements that could prove beneficial for the consumption sector and private banking.“This time, the government has got a lot of fiscal room. We would expect some allocation to revenue expenditure while maintaining capital expenditure, but as an incremental delta for revenue expenditure should be better and that should be positive for some of the consumer durable and private banking names, which has underperformed so far.”For the entire interview, watch the accompanying video
