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IT services company Tech Mahindra is expected to see another muted quarter (January-March) as an uncertain macro environment and cautious tech spending might weigh on the numbers.Net profit for the quarter ended March 2024 is likely to fall up to 40% year-on-year (YoY), according to an average estimate of four brokerages.Meanwhile, revenues, both in rupee and constant currency terms, are likely to fall. Analysts peg constant currency revenue growth at -1.4%, while the rupee revenue is likely to fall anywhere between 3-5% YoY.The overall revenue numbers would be a let down due to weakness across communications and enterprise segments.Even though deal wins are likely to be stable in the fourth quarter, they will still be below normal levels.Here's what to expect from Tech Mahindra's Q4Axis SecuritiesWe expect the company to report revenue growth of 0.7% on a QoQ basis. Its margins are likely to expand due to strong growth in volume and reshuffling of the portfolio. Watch out for deal TCVs and pipeline in the communication vertical, pricing scenario, attrition, outlook on growth/margins/DSO days, and commentary on the 5G rollout.NuvamaTechM to report -1.4% quarter-on-quarter decline in CC and -1.0% decline in USD - driven by weakness in the Telecom segment and absence of pass-through revenues. Margins to expand by 200 bps quarter-on-quarter to 7.3%, on the back of the absence of one-off cost. Adjusted margins to remain flat quarter-on-quarter. Deal wins are expected to be stable.Motilal OswalRevenue growth is expected to be muted at 0.7% QoQ CC due to weakness in both CME and Enterprise verticals. Deal wins are likely to be muted due to macro uncertainty.We expect a deal TCV to the tune of $500 million in the fourth quarter. Margins are likely to improve 140 bps quarter-on-quarter, as the impact of cost-control efforts should start becoming visible. Weak growth is likely to keep margins under pressure.The outlook on margin and growth in the CME vertical will be the key monitorables.Kotak Institutional EquitiesWe expect a 1.4% quarter-on-quarter decline in revenue due to weakness across communications and enterprise segments. 4QFY24 EBIT margin segment could improve by 200 bps due to the absence of provisions related to unprofitable contracts. Normalized EBIT margin improvement would be gradual in FY2025E.Deal wins will improve sequentially although they will still be below normalised levels. Weakness is due to weak macro and slow decision-making. We forecast net new TCV of $500-600 million.We expect quarterly financials to have limited sway on stock performance in the near term with focus on details of a turnaround strategy under the current CEO.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of Economic Times)

A former Jane Street Group trader who moved to Millennium Management ridiculed his former employer’s claims that he used its secret strategy to make a killing at his new job in India’s options market.Responding to a lawsuit filed by Jane Street this month, Douglas Schadewald said it was “not only wrong, but impossible” that he and a fellow defector, Daniel Spottiswood, cost the company more than $150 million in profits between February and March when they went to work for rival Millennium. Labeling Jane Street’s claim as “reckless speculation,” Schadewald said the amount the duo brought in for Millennium through mid-April was about $4 million.In its complaint, Jane Street accused the two of using its “immensely valuable” proprietary strategy in their new jobs. Jane Street said its profits from using the strategy fell by 50% in March, a drop it said could only be attributable to “the entrance of a competitor using the same strategy.” The description of the strategy was heavily redacted in Jane Street’s complaint.In a signed statement, Schadewald denied using Jane Street’s strategies or any of its confidential intellectual property and said his name was being smeared “to try to prevent me from doing honest work for a competitor.”ALSO READ | Jane Street's $1-billion trade puts the spotlight on Indian optionsHe suggested that Jane Street’s losses could be due to a risky trading strategy. “Millennium mandated daily loss limits — i.e., the amount of capital that my team and I are permitted to risk losing in a given day,” he said in the filing. On the other hand, “Jane Street took an extreme amount of risk,” according to Schadewald’s statement, which made it “susceptible to very large drawdowns in large market moves.”In a separate declaration, Spottiswood also denied wrongdoing.“At Millennium, I have not used, and do not intend to use, any trade secrets, confidential information, or proprietary information of Jane Street,” he said. Instead, Spottiswood said, he relies on “general skills, knowledge, and experience” and publicly available information, as well as what he learned before he worked for Jane Street.Jane Street representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment outside regular business hours.At a hearing last week in Manhattan, US District Judge Paul Engelmayer denied Jane Street’s request for an order barring Millennium and the two traders from using the strategy at issue, saying the firm could be compensated if it’s found to have suffered any harm. Engelmayer put the case on an expedited schedule, setting a trial date in July.A Jane Street lawyer said at the hearing that the strategy was one of the firm’s most lucrative and expressed fear that even identifying the country involved would lead to others “picking apart” the details. Lawyers for the defendants inadvertently revealed during the hearing that the strategy involved options trading in India.Schadewald said in his statement that Jane Street expected him to draw on his previous experience working for Barclays and is now faulting him for again drawing on the expertise he has built up, this time at a new employer.He said that as far as he could tell from court filings, the “strategy” Jane Street is trying to protect “would cover any type of options trading in India.”“The complaint appears to suggest that the existence of inefficiencies within the Indian options market and the size of this market are trade secrets or proprietary to Jane Street,” according to Schadewald’s statement.The case is Jane Street Group LLC v. Millennium Management LLC, 24-cv-02783, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).