Wipro posts surprise fall in third-quarter profit on higher costs

(Reuters) - IT firm Wipro Ltd posted a surprise fall in third-quarter profit as higher costs weighed.

Net profit fell to 19.31 billion rupees ($303 million). That lagged analysts' average estimates for profit of 21.58 billion rupees, Thomson Reuters data showed.

Bengaluru-headquartered Wipro said it expected revenue from the IT services business to be in the range of $2.03 billion - $2.07 billion in the quarter ending March 31.

Revenue from IT services segment rose marginally to 132.35 billion rupees ($2.08 billion) in the quarter ended December, India's third-largest software services exporter said on Friday. http://bit.ly/2rjwAnr

Total expenses rose 2.2 percent to 118.30 billion rupees in the quarter.

Shares of the company gained 1.1 percent ahead of results in a Mumbai market that closed 0.72 percent higher.

Bigger rival Tata Consultancy Services posted a dip in third-quarter profit last week, while India's No.2 IT firm Infosys Ltd clocked a better-than-expected profit.

($1 = 63.7600 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by David Goodman and Alexander Smith)