Markets and IT Services Industry Roundup - week ending May 29, 2009

Markets Roundup:

• Markets scored big gains as investors think worst of recession is over, though many are uncertain about the speed of recovery
• Better-than-expected consumer confidence index for May of 54.9, up from 40.8 in April, gave participants anecdotal evidence that economic conditions may be improving
• Data showed that March durable goods orders rose, weekly Initial Jobless claims fell, continuing claims rose, and April new home sales climbed
• Preliminary GDP showed 5.7% drop for the first quarter, which was a slight improvement from the 6.1% decline that had been reported in the advance GDP reading
• Surge in crude oil prices lifted energy shares
• Gold prices are now up more than 10% since hitting their 2009 lows in mid-April

Industry Roundup:

• Tech services sector stocks were up 4% during the week
• IBM announced that it has provided U.S. Lumber Group with a business intelligence (BI) solution that is providing the company with in-depth reporting capabilities in real time versus their original system that provided reports daily.
• IBM has won four 2009 SAP(R) Pinnacle Awards, provided by one of its global partners, SAP AG. The awards were granted to leading SAP partners that have excelled in providing high-quality products, solutions and services to mutual customers.
• Accenture announced that its Board of Directors has unanimously approved changing the company’s place of incorporation to Ireland from Bermuda.
• CSC has been named Vivek Chopra as President of the company’s India operations, effective immediately. Chopra replaces Rajendra B. Vattikutti, who is retiring.
• CSC announced that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) awarded the company a task order to conduct scanning, indexing and file management operations at a records digitization facility. The contract has a one-year performance period and a value of $27 million.
• Department of State (DoS) Bureau of Consular Affairs awarded CSC a task order to consolidate four legacy visa systems into one unified processing system. The task order has a one-year base period and four one-year options, bringing the estimated total five-year contract value to $36 million.
• ACS announced an agreement to purchase UK-based Anix, an IT services and infrastructure solutions provider and wholly owned subsidiary of Xploite plc. ACS will pay approximately $50 million in cash upon completing the acquisition, which is expected to close prior to June 30, 2009.
• TCS named N.Chandrasekaran, its present Chief Operating Officer, as the Chief Executive Officer designate and intends to appoint him as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer on retirement of the CEO, S. Ramadorai.
• Infosys BPO has earned the highest rating, Level 5, for e-Sourcing Capability Model (eSCM-SP) by Carnegie Mellon University's IT Services Qualification Center
• ICRA has retained its highest rating for corporate governance on IT firm Infosys Technologies, citing its transparent and disbursed ownership structure, among other reasons. The rating of CGR1 is the highest on ICRA’s Corporate Governance Rating (CGR) scale of CGR1 to CGR6.
• HCL Technologies has emerged as the best managed entity in the list of top 50 global outsourcing vendors for 2009 compiled by the Black Book of Outsourcing , ahead of Indian IT services companies and global giants like Oracle. Other Indian outsourcing vendors in the list include — NIIT Technologies (20th), Wipro-Infocrossing (21st), Tata Consultancy Services (26th), Mastek (29th) and WNS Global(32).
• Amerinet, a leading national healthcare group purchasing organization, has entered into an agreement that will make Perot System’s revenue cycle solutions available to Amerinet’s acute and alternate care site members
• Wipro Infocrossing, a provider of managed infrastructure outsourcing services, and Sunoco, a manufacturer and marketer of petroleum and petrochemical products, announced a $34 million four-year contract extension and expansion of the companies' 13-year relationship.
• Genpact was named Best ITO Service Provider and Best ITMS Provider during the recent Chinese Enterprise Informatization Top 500 Conference.
• Huntsman has awarded a five year contract to Genpact to provide global accounts payable services to Huntsman’s operations across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific.