Infosys Technologies on Friday met market estimates, recording quarterly profits of Rs 1,302 crore for Q1 FY 2009, up 20.7% from profits of Rs 1,079 crore posted during a year ago. The company?s revenues for the quarter, at Rs 4,854 were up 28.7% from Rs 3,773 crore earned a year ago.

The company expressed ?cautious optimism? on the back of its global delivery model (GDM) and a weakening rupee, however adding that IT budgets were flat and the pricing stable.

The company chief executive officer and managing director S Gopalakrishnan said that the global economic slow-down could impact IT spending in the short term.

?It (the business environment) is challenging. We need to be cautiously optimistic,? he said adding that the market- shift towards GDM was promising for the company. ?The IT budgets have been finalised. Very few companies are looking at increasing their IT spend. IT services companies like us will get momentum from the shift of traditional delivery models to GDM,? he said.

Pricing for Q1 remained stable and was unlikely to rise for the rest of the year, Infosys said.

The company?s operating margins were impacted due to visa and compensation costs, while the weakening Rupee, which depreciated 5.5% during the quarter, offset the impact to some extent. ?We believe that the currency market will remain volatile in the short term,? Infosys chief financial officer V Balakrishnan said.

The depreciating Rupee prompted Infosys to revised its guidance under the Indian GAAP, projecting revenues to be between Rs 21, 278 crore and Rs 21,622 crore for the fiscal 2009. Earnings per share for the year, including a tax reversal of Rs 31 crore for fiscal 2009 and Rs 121 crore in fiscal 2008, was likely to be between Rs 23.52 and Rs 23.95, up 22.1% to 24.4% Y- o- Y. Under the US GAAP, it maintained its earlier projections for the year.

For Q2 fiscal 2009, the company said it expected revenues to be in the range of Rs 5229 crore to Rs 5272 crore, growing 27.4% to 28.4% annually. Earnings per share, was expected to be between Rs 23.52 and Rs 23.95, growing 22.1% to 24.4% Y-o-Y.

Infosys and its subsidiaries saw an addition of 49 clients during the quarter. The company added 3192 employees in Q1, taking its total headcount to 94,379.