Shares in Infosys closed up 16.8 per cent on Friday after stellar third-quarter results and an unexpected rise in its fiscal year revenue estimate, adding $4.07 billion to its market capitalization, more than the GDP of Fiji.
Infosys' 16.8 percent jump almost single-handedly kept the Sensex in the black, with 26 of its 30 components closing lower, including index heavyweights Reliance Industries and tobacco major ITC.
Fiji's gross domestic product stood at $3.81 billion in 2011, according to the most recent data available from the World Bank.
India's No.2 software services provider Infosys Ltd raised its revenue forecast after posting stronger-than-expected quarterly profit, triggering a 15 percent surge in its shares, set for their biggest gain in more than a decade.
Many investors had dumped shares in the company after a string of disappointing quarters eroded Infosys' reputation as the sector bellwether, putting pressure on CEO SD Shibulal to win more deals and make the firm more profitable.
"We continue to gain confidence from a strong pipeline of large deals," Shibulal said in a statement. "We remain cautiously optimistic about the January-March quarter."
The Bangalore-based company unexpectedly raised its sales forecast for the year ending March 31 to at least $7.45 billion, including $104 million in additional revenue following its acquisition of Switzerland-based consultancy Lodestone Holdings.
That would be a rise of 6.6 percent from a year earlier, compared with a previous forecast for a 5 percent increase.
New deals, including 13 in Europe, helped boost Infosys' revenue. Spending on IT services by capital markets clients such as investment banks and brokerages has also improved, Ashok Vemury, head of Americas and manufacturing, told reporters in Bangalore after the earnings announcement.
Clients that have signed big contracts with Infosys, including Harley-Davidson, also accelerated spending during the quarter, he said.
However, some analysts said it was still too early to predict a recovery for the company.
"We are positively surprised by Infosys' performance, and need to study the durability of Infosys' comeback," JPMorgan said in a research note.
Analysts had expected Infosys to trim its annual sales growth to as low as 3.3 per cent after the company warned last month that US clients had cut back on projects and delayed signing big deals.
"The market was slightly predatory, given that the last two times the company has disappointed, but this time the organic guidance is better ... which I think will be taken positively," said Rikesh Parikh, vice president for markets strategy and equities at Motilal Oswal Securities in Mumbai.
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