Results declared by India?s leading technology major have clearly surprised analysts and most estimates have been beaten. Analysts expected a 120-150 basis points drop in the operating profit margins on a sequential basis as the company had announced an 8% wage hike and the rupee had appreciated by around 8.6% in the December 2009 quarter. Additionally, December is seen as a seasonally weak month with the holiday season on. However, Infosys has managed to beat the Street with Ebitda margins of 35.5%, up 90 basis points over the previous quarter. The net profit at Rs 1,582 crore has also grown by 2.7% over the same period. Analysts reckon that this is the best December quarter in the past six years. Clearly, the simple strategy, to concentrate on their core strengths thrust on sales, reduce costs and improve efficiency, has worked. The depreciation of the rupee could have shaved off around 1.8% of the margins, but improved utilisation rates added around 80 basis points, says the management. The manpower utilisation (without trainees) has grown to 76.2%, a clear 3% from 73.2% levels in the previous quarter. A direct result of volume growth, reckon analysts at CLSA. Volumes were 6.1% over the previous quarter. Even the utilisation with trainees grew to 68.8% a huge 1.5% jump over the previous quarter. Moreover, it managed to add 32 new clients, of which, 14 were from the banking and finance sector and nine new Fortune 500 clients. Pricing also remained steady with a 1.2% growth on the onsite billing and a marginal drop of 0.1% in the offshore businesses. So apart from better utilisation an 8% drop in the general and administration expenses also helped boost profits. Already, it has managed to reduce its collection period from 72 day levels in March 2008 to 57 days in the current quarter. Going ahead, the management has guided an earnings per share between Rs106.85 and Rs107.06, a change from the earlier guidance Rs99.6 and Rs100. It is expected that the rupee strengthening pressure would continue in the last quarter as well. But the management has headroom to manage this through better utilisation. The current utilisation rate is at its 10-year lows and therefore can manage to improve this. According to analysts, each 1% move there helps margins by 40 basis points, helping address persistent currency strength concerns.