New Delhi, April 29 -- The stock of HCL Technologies Ltd is standing out amid a tough demand environment for information technology (IT) companies. So far this year, HCL's shares have fallen under a per cent-better than most tier-1 competitors and also the Nifty IT index, which has dropped almost 6%. Clients are delaying discretionary expenditure and it helps that HCL has a relatively higher exposure to cloud, which is more non-discretionary in nature.

True, HCL's revenue growth guidance for FY25 is below analysts' expectations at 3-5% in constant currency (CC) terms. The lower guidance was attributed to higher offshoring at one of the clients in Q1, which is expected to lead to a 2% sequential decline in Q1FY25. Additionally, divestment...