India's Wipro Q4 net rises 4 pct, beats forecast
BANGALORE, April 22 (Reuters) - Wipro Ltd (WIPR.BO), India's third-largest software services exporter, posted a 4.2 percent rise in quarterly profit, beating forecasts.
Wipro, which offers IT solutions such as system integration, software application development and back-office services, said on Wednesday net profit in its fiscal fourth quarter to March rose to 9.1 billion rupees ($180 million), under U.S. accounting rules, from 8.75 billion rupees reported a year ago.
A Reuters poll had forecast a net profit of 8.73 billion rupees for New York-listed Wipro (WIT.N), which counts Citigroup (C.N), telecoms gear makers Cisco (CSCO.O), Nokia Siemens Networks [NSN.UL] and Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX) among its clients.
The company said it expected June quarter IT services revenues of about $1 billion to $1.03 billion.
Wipro reported its earnings after India's biggest IT services exporter Tata Consultancy Services (TCS.BO) posted below-forecast quarterly profit growth, while second-ranked Infosys Technologies (INFY.BO) managed to beat street estimates. Tata Consultancy and Infosys both gave a downbeat forecast for the financial year that began on April 1 due to the global downturn hitting technology spending and put pressure on prices for India's export-driven outsourcers.
Shares in Wipro, majority-owned by its billionaire Chairman Azim Premji, rose 5 percent in the March quarter, outperforming a 2.6 percent advance in the sector index .BSEIT and 0.6 percent in the main index .BSESN. ($1=50.5 rupees) (Reporting by Sumeet Chatterjee; Editing by John Mair)
