Cap Gemini Ernst & Young today confirmed profit and revenue forecasts after reporting a well-flagged slide in first-half operating profit.
The news boosted shares in Cap Gemini, Europe's largest computer services firm, which have fallen 30 per cent since a June profit warning.
Cap Gemini shares were up 2.03 per cent at euro 78, outperforming the CAC-40 index, which was down 0.33 per cent.
Cap Gemini, which shocked markets last month with a profit warning and massive job cuts, said non-audited results for the first half showed operating income was euro 269 million, or 6.1 per cent of consolidated revenue.
The firm last month said it expected full-year 2001 sales of euro 9 billion rather than euro 9.6 billion, due to falling demand.
It had said at the time cost-cutting measures and a plan to cut jobs would help operating margins recover to between 8 and 9 per cent in the second half - targets that the group confirmed today.
The group also said its action plan to improve profitability in the second half had been fully deployed.
The company said in June it would cut 2,700 staff. Chief executive Mr Geoff Unwin said today 2,100 of those employees had already left and that 600 more were in the process of leaving. He said the group was recruiting "very, very selectively".