Wipro first-quarter profit beats estimates

(Reuters) - India's Wipro Ltd beat first-quarter profit expectations on Friday buoyed by higher Banking, Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) revenue.

Net profit for the three months to June 30 rose about 2 percent to 21.21 billion rupees ($307.55 million), India's third-largest software services exporter said in a statement http://bit.ly/2JEgski.

That topped the 19.52 billion rupee profit expected by analysts, Thomson Reuters data showed.

IT services revenue grew by about 5 percent to 137 billion rupees in the first quarter while the BFSI business grew 17.5 percent to 41.1 billion rupees.

Wipro said it expected IT services revenue to grow 0.3-2.3 percent quarter on quarter for the three months to September 30. IT services revenue is expected to rise to between $2.01 billion and $2.05 billion, it said, excluding the impact of its divestment of its hosted data centre services business.

"We have seen a pick-up in spending in the developed markets, particularly in North America and BFSI," said Chief Executive Officer Abidali Z. Neemuchwala.

India's $154 billion software services industry, led by Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Ltd, faces tighter margins in legacy businesses such as routine infrastructure maintenance as clients increasingly demand more work for less money.

Still, Tata Consultancy Services this month posted a record profit helped by a rebound in its financial services business.

Infosys reported a rise in net income but missed estimates.

($1 = 68.9650 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Krishna V Kurup and Aby Jose Koilparambil in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely)