NEW DELHI, INDIA: Indian IT services major HCL Technologies Ltd on Wednesday said its quarterly profit for the quarter ended September 2009 (Q1) stood at Rs 300.75 crore, up 18.5 up as compared to Rs 253.79 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2008.

However, under US accounting standards the net profit for the first quarter of the company's accounting calendar fell by 11.3 per cent. It posted a profit of $66.5 million for the reporting quarter, as compared to $75.8 million for the quarter ended September 30, 2008.

Total Income has increased from Rs 1225.66 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2008 to Rs 1295.2 crore for the quarter ended September 30, 2009, HCL said in a statement.

"Though there are signs of an early recovery in sectors like Financial Services, we continue to be

cautious. We continue to see sustained recovery only by next year," said Shiv Nadar, chairman and chief strategy officer, HCL Technologies.

"In the new normal world of changed consumption patterns, new growth drivers, new sources of innovation and new uses of technology, companies will be dealing with a new reality that brings with it moderated growth rates and higher government regulation. HCL is poised to take advantage of the upcoming market opportunities," he added.

The company's forex loss for the quarter at Rs. 151 crore compared to Rs. 80 crore same quarter last year and Rs. 89 crore last quarter.

HCL announced a dividend of Re. 1 per share. This is the 27th consecutive quarter of dividend payout, said HCL.

During this period, the gross addition was 4,322 taking the headcount to 54,443. Net addition in IT Services was 665.

Commenting on the results, Vineet Nayar, CEO, HCL Technologies said, "We continue to excel. We have had another good quarter recording a revenue growth of 25.8 per cent YoY on the back of 21.0 per cent YoY growth last quarter. At the same time, our margins grew by 26.3 per cent YoY."

He said HCL Technologies has accelerated growth in Infrastructure Services, Custom Applications, Telecom, Media, Retail and Financial Services besides gaining market share in US and Europe.  

To increase salaries

Meanwhile, a PTI report said that HCL Technologies would increase the salaries of their employees by 0-10 per cent from October 1.

"We have decided to increase the wages of the employees effective from October 1, 2009 by 0-10 per cent and this will result in our gross margin dropping by 130 basis points for the next two quarters," HCL Tech CEO Vineet Nayar was quoted as saying.