India's Wipro Q4 net up 44 pct, beats forecasts

BANGALORE, April 20 (Reuters) - India's third-largest software services exporter, Wipro Ltd. (WIPR.BO), reported a 44 percent rise in quarterly net profit, beating estimates, as overseas companies looking to cut costs increasingly outsourced business.

Wipro, which counts telecom gear makers Cisco (CSCO.O) and Nortel NT.N among key clients, said on Friday net profit in the March quarter rose to 8.61 billion rupees ($205 million) under U.S. accounting standards, up from 5.97 billion a year earlier.

A Reuters poll of four brokerages had forecast a net profit of 7.71 billion rupees for Bangalore-headquartered Wipro, which provides IT solutions and services such as system integration, software application development and research services.

Shares in Wipro, which has minor interests in computer hardware and consumer goods such as soap, fell nearly 8 percent in the March quarter, more than a 7 percent decline in the IT sector index .BSEIT and a 5.2 percent drop in the main index .BSESN. ($1=42.1 rupees)