While each of them showed a sustained business momentum in terms of new orders, the real showstopper was HCL with a nine-quarter high new order booking worth $3,005 million. TCS kept its new order booking above $9 billion for the fifth consecutive quarter with $9.3 billion worth of deals in the latest quarter. HCLTech also marginally improved the FY26 revenue growth guidance for the services segment to 4.75-5.25% from the earlier 4-5% in constant currency.
An analysis of their performance based on trailing 12-month (TTM) dollar denominated revenue reveals that TCS has suffered a gradual deceleration in the year-on-year top-line growth; its TTM revenue fell by 0.7% in the December quarter against a 5.4% growth in the comparable quarter two years ago. HCL has been able to retain the growth rate above 4% over the past nine quarters. The year-on-year difference or the incremental TTM revenue for TCS turned negative (a drop of $216 million) for the first time in 20 quarters since the December 2020 quarter when it was negative due to the impact of the Covid pandemic.
For TCS, slowing TTM trend despite sustained new deals flow raises concerns since it implies that the company has been finding it difficult to ramp up the deals amid delayed decision-making by clients.
AgenciesHCL also scores on guidance, headcount and growth rate; TCS numbers show a slip
In a press conference, the HCL management stated that the delay in discretionary spending is noticeable largely in the case of traditional transformation projects whereas the investments in new technology platforms including enablers of AI such as datacenters, semiconductors, generative and physical AI including robotics and automated cars are rising. The company is focussing more on these areas.
This explains the recent announcements by TCS to undertake investments in datacenter-related solutions in a bid to regain revenue momentum. This is more of a long-term project and, therefore, investors would be keen to see how quickly the company can resume growth in its existing offerings.
While TCS has been cutting workforce, HCL has renewed freshers intake. It added 10,000 freshers in the nine months to December 2025 against 6,000 in year-ago period. In the short and medium term, TCS is likely to face pressure whereas HCL is likely a candidate for rerating.