Wipro beats first-quarter consolidated profit estimates

(Reuters) - Wipro Ltd, India's third-largest software services exporter, posted a better-than-expected first-quarter consolidated profit helped by higher revenue from banking, insurance and financial services.

Consolidated profit rose 1.2 percent to 20.83 billion rupees ($323.30 million) for the three months to June 30, Wipro said in a statement on Thursday.

Analysts had expected a profit of 20.29 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Wipro said consolidated revenue remained flat at 136.26 billion rupees, while revenue from its core IT services segment came in at $1.97 billion, a 2.1 percent rise year on year.

Wipro said it expected revenue from its IT services business to be in the range of $1.96 billion to $2 billion for the quarter ending on Sept. 30.

The Bengaluru-headquartered company also announced a buyback of shares worth up to 110 billion rupees.

India's top IT firm Tata Consultancy Services Ltd earlier this year announced a buy-back worth up to 160 billion rupees while No. 2 Infosys Ltd has plans to return $2 billion to shareholders.

($1 = 64.4300 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely and David Evans)