India's Wipro Q4 net rises 1.7 pct, lagss forecast

BANGALORE, April 18 (Reuters) - Wipro Ltd (WIPR.BO), India's third-largest software services exporter, reported a 1.7 percent rise in quarterly net profit, slightly lagging estimates.

Wipro, which offers IT solutions such as system integration, software application development and back-office services, said on Friday net profit in its fiscal fourth quarter to March rose to 8.75 billion rupees ($220 million), under U.S. accounting rules, from 8.6 billion rupees a year ago.

A Reuters poll had forecast a mean net profit of 8.8 billion rupees for New York-listed Wipro (WIT.N), which counts telecoms gear makers Cisco (CSCO.O), Nortel NT.N, and Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) among its clients.

Wipro reported its earnings after India's No. 2 software exporter, Infosys Technologies Ltd (INFY.BO), posted a near-10 percent rise in profit and gave a confident medium-term outlook, but sounded a note of caution on its near-term prospects.

Growing evidence of a U.S. recession is a major concern for India's $64 billion software services sector, which gets more than half its revenue from the world's largest economy.

Shares in Wipro, majority-owned by its billionaire Chairman Azim Premji, fell 19 percent in the March quarter, compared to a 22 percent decline in the IT sector index .BSEIT and a 23 percent drop in the benchmark index .BSESN.

The Indian stock market is closed on Friday for a holiday. Trading resumes on Monday. ($1=39.9 rupees) (Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by John Mair)