Infosys declared a 33% jump in net profits and a 31% rise in revenues in the third quarter, aided partly by the 7.7% fall in the rupee?s value, but that?s a stellar performance by most standards, especially for a company of its size. And yet, its stock fell 8.4% on a day the Sensex fell just 0.9%, a pointer to how the future looks for India?s IT majors. The stock fell because, after projecting a 17.1-19.1% growth just a quarter ago, Infosys has cut its revenue growth forecast to 16.4%. So expect a similar fall in other IT stocks even as they declare good results in the weeks ahead. Analysts predict TCS and Wipro to turn in similarly impressive net profit numbers, while the fortunes of the mid-cap firms are likely to be dented. According to Gartner, global spending on information technology will rise at the slowest pace in three years in 2012 as Europe, worried about the region?s sovereign debt crisis, is cutting back on investments. Gartner predicts global IT spending would rise 3.7% in 2012, down from its earlier estimate of 4.6%. The forecast for Western Europe was slashed to a 0.7% drop in spending from a previously expected rise of 3.4%. So it is not a surprise that Infosys was cautious about its forecast. Its CEO SD Shibulal admitted that slow growth in developed markets could impact IT industry growth.

As for Infosys?s performance, what?s impressive is how it is quickly building back its muscle. Despite the slowing of the US and European markets?which contribute to more than half of its revenues?the company has been able to add 49 new clients during the quarter, while clearly getting more work from existing ones. The fact that companies like Infosys can still turn up numbers of this order despite such adversity proves how tenacious Indian firms have become. Infosys?s operating margin at 28.2% for the three months ended September 30 was the highest among its local peers and way ahead of even IBM?s 19.8%, with Tata Consultancy at 27.1%. It will be great to see how these numbers stack up in Q3.

Kamath and Kris seem to be working some fair bit of magic for Infosys, reminding one of the Murthy-Nilekani era.