Tata Consultancy Services posts dip in third-quarter profit

(Reuters) - Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), India's biggest software services exporter, posted a 3.6 percent decline in third-quarter profit on Thursday, hurt by a dip in spending by banking and financial services clients.

Net profit attributable to shareholders fell to 65.31 billion rupees ($1.03 billion) in the quarter ended Dec. 31 from 67.78 billion rupees in the same period a year earlier, TCS said. http://bit.ly/2EwdNXS

Analysts on average expected the Mumbai-headquartered company to post a profit of 65.18 billion rupees, Thomson Reuters data showed.

Income from operations rose about four percent to 309.04 billion rupees. ($1 = 63.6550 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman/Keith Weir)