Wipro's fourth-quarter profit misses estimates on lower revenue

(Reuters) - Wipro Ltd, India's third-biggest software services exporter by revenue, on Wednesday posted lower-than-expected fourth-quarter net profit, hurt by lower revenue from operations.

The IT firm said it expected revenue from IT services to be in a range of $2.02-$2.07 billion in the June quarter.

Net profit fell 20.3 percent to 18.03 billion rupees ($269.99 million) in the three months ended March 31, Bengaluru-headquartered Wipro said on Wednesday.

Analysts on average expected a profit of 21.32 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Revenue from operations fell 1.6 percent to 137.69 billion rupees, while revenue from its key IT services business rose 5.5 percent to $2.06 billion, in the range forecast by Wipro.

Wipro warned earlier this month an insolvency petition filed by an Indian telecom client on Feb. 28 would hit net income by between 65 and 75 basis points. Though mobile carrier Aircel has filed for bankruptcy amid a price war triggered by a telecoms upstart, Wipro did not name the client.

Bigger rivals Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Ltd posted rises in fourth-quarter profit earlier this month.

($1 = 66.7800 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta and Jessica Kuruthukulangara in Bengaluru; Editing by Louies Heavens and Mark Potter)