Wipro posts 29.6% rise in Q1 profit

Wipro Ltd, India's third-biggest IT services exporter, posted a 29.6% rise in fiscal first-quarter profit and forecast a surge in revenue on the back of stronger spending on outsourcing by overseas clients.

Bangalore-based Wipro, which inked a 10-year deal to manage IT outsourcing of Canadian energy and utilities firm Atco on Friday, said it expected IT services sales in this quarter to grow between 1.7 and 4% from the quarter ended June.

IT services revenue in April-June rose 1.2% over the previous quarter to $1.7 billion.

"We see a significant rise in business confidence in developed markets as well as India," Wipro's billionaire Chairman Azim Premji said in a statement.

Wipro is part of the $108 billion-a-year Indian outsourcing sector that generates about 90% of its revenue from providing services such as IT network installation and the development of software applications for overseas clients that are looking to raise spending on technology.

For the quarter ended June 30, Wipro posted a consolidated net profit of 21.03 billion rupees ($349.9 million), compared with 16.23 billion rupees in the year-ago quarter. Analysts, on average, expected the company to earn 21.24 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Wipro shares ended up 1% at 576.85 rupees ahead of the announcement, while the Nifty closed 0.5% higher. The stock is up 3.2% so far this year, lagging a 24% rise in the broader market.