Infotech Enterprises declined 2.7% to Rs 101 on BSE following a 10.3% drop in net profit.

The scrip of the GIS and engineering software segment focused IT company had hit a low of Rs 98.30 earlier. Around 3.6 lakh Infotech Enterprises (IEL) shares were traded on the counter on BSE. The stock is usually the subject of speculative interest.

The stock has received a hammering on the bourses over the last few months . From Rs 207.30 on 8 January 2003, the stock plunged 56.8% in less than three months to Rs 89.35 on 31 March 2003. The scrip has moved in a band of Rs 92-110 since.

IEL, early today, reported a 10.3% fall in net profit to Rs 7.01 crore from Rs 7.82 crore in the corresponding period last year. Net sales grew 19.3% to Rs 32.42 crore from Rs 27.16 crore. These are standalone results

For FY 2002-03, IEL's consolidated net profit plunged 25.5% to Rs 14.91 crore from Rs 20.03 crore. The consolidated total income rose 20.9% to Rs 164.78 crore from Rs 136.20 crore. The results have come in line with the company's revised guidance for the year. IEL had revised downward its FY 2002-03 guidance at the time of announcing its Q3 ended 31 December 2002 results.

The management had then indicated that earnings progress had been slower than previous assessments due to the delay in turnaround of international business subsidiaries (specially the UK operations), delay in commencement of some new business engagements and delay in operational ramp-up of certain existing client projects, compared to earlier indications.

IEL focuses in the areas of GIS, engineering design, embedded systems design services and e-Business. The company specialises in software services and solutions for manufacturing, utilities, telecommunications, transportation, retail, financial services, geotechnical and local government markets. IEL is a SEI CMM Level 5 certified company.