The first trading session of 2022 started on a promising note for equities with the benchmark Sensex surging over 929 points to reclaim the 59000-mark as optimism over corporate earnings overshadowed the spike in Covid-19 cases across the country.

Although the third quarter results season will officially begin on January 8 eyes will be on the technology giants TCS, Infosys and Wipro which, in a rare coincidence, will declare their numbers on the same day: January 12.

The October-December quarter is seasonally a lean period for the tech companies because of holidays and furloughs. But brokerages remain bullish not only on their performance but also with regard to their guidance for this year.

Moreover, given the economic recovery and a good festival season, manufacturing companies are expected to report positive numbers even as firm input prices could crimp their margins.

Analysts point out that the momentum in revenue growth for IT services is likely to continue because of good deal wins and segments such as digital and cloud performing well. Among the top tier firms, they expect Infosys to revise upwards its revenue growth guidance for the fiscal from 16.5-17.5 per cent given in October.

Analysts at Emkay said in a note that the environment continued to remain broad-based, driven by strong demand for digital, cloud, data analytics, 5G, IoT (internet of things), cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. The brokerage expects dollar revenue growth of 1.9-3.3 per cent in sequential terms and 2.7-4 per cent on constant currency basis for the Tier-1 companies.

It added that while the Nifty IT index delivered around 10.5 per cent return in the last three months and outperformed the broader markets by 12 per cent, a sustained revenue growth momentum with margin stability will maintain higher valuations.

Emkay's “pecking order” included Infosys, TCS, HCL Technologies and Tech Mahindra among Tier-1 names and Route, Mphasis, Firstsource Solutions, eClerx, Persistent System and Birla Soft among mid-caps.

Infosys may raise the full year revenue growth guidance to 17.5-18 per cent, the Emkay analysts said.

Motilal Oswal said its top companies will deliver a net profit growth of around 11 per cent over the same period of the previous year and around 6 per cent in sequential terms.

The brokerage expects TCS to post a 17 per cent growth in net profit to Rs 10,200 crore and Infosys 13 per cent growth to Rs 5900 crore. Revenues of TCS is projected to show a sequential growth of 4.6 per cent to Rs 49,000 crore while it could come at 6.3 per cent to Rs 31,500 crore in the case of Infosys.

The Sensex began on a strong footing at 58310.09 on Monday and built on the gains to touch the day’s high of 59266.39. It later settled at 59183.22-a rise of 929.40 points or 1.60 per cent.

On the NSE, the broader Nifty 50 rose 271.65 points or 1.57 per cent to 17,625.70. The broader market was positive with the Nifty Mid-cap 100 and Nifty small-cap 100 rising up to 1.15 per cent.

Meanwhile, the rupee scored modest gains against the dollar as it settled at 74.26 to the greenback against the previous close of 74.29 per dollar.