The shares of leading IT sector firms rose on Thursday after firms showed strong expectations for the coming quarters.

Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp recorded an increase of 18 per cent in revenues during the first quarter from January to March, 2013 and said that it expects higher revenue than expected by the market analysts in the current quarter.

The company’s revenues increased 18.1 per cent to 2.02 billion dollars in the quarter from 1.71 billion dollars in first quarter, 2012. Cognizant expects its revenues to be "at least 2.13 billion dollars". Cognizant has said that it expects its sales to grow 5.4 per cent from the March quarter.

Experts noted that among the leading IT sector firms in India, Cognizant, Tata Consultancy Services and HCL Technologies have sent on strong expectations for the coming quarters while Bangalore-based Infosys and Wipro have remained largely silent.

The shares of Infosys Ltd increased 0.5 per cent, Tata Consultancy Services Ltd were trading 1.1 per cent higher while HCL Technologies Ltd increased 1.9 per cent in the morning trade. Cognizant, which is listed in the US, rose 3.3 per cent on Thursday.

The benchmark, BSE Sensex was trading down 37.42 points at 19,952.76 this morning.