Tata Consultancy Services reports 22% rise in quarterly profit

India's biggest IT outsourcing firm, Tata Consultancy Services, on Wednesday reported a 22 percent jump in quarterly net profit, in line with market forecasts, led by stronger outsourcing orders.

The company, which is popularly known as TCS and is part of the steel-to-tea Tata conglomerate, said net profit was 35.97 billion rupees ($661 million) for the three months ended March, up from 29.32 billion rupees a year earlier.

Analysts had forecast TCS would show a profit of about 36 billion rupees.

TCS, which does not offer a revenue outlook, counts blue-chip companies such as British Airways, Microsoft and Sony among its main clients.

"The mood is positive. Deals are getting closed," said TCS chief executive N. Chandrasekaran, adding that business grew in the retail, financial services, insurance and manufacturing sectors across geographic markets.

"We expect the fiscal year 2013-14 (which started April 1) to be better than the last fiscal," he told reporters in the city.

He said TCS is pursuing deals of a larger size this year compared to last year.

Its rival Infosys last week reported a 3.4 percent rise in net profit to 23.94 billion rupees ($439 million).

But lower-than-expected January-March revenues and sales projections for the coming 12 months saw Infosys shares tumble by over 21 percent in a single day.

India, with its large English-speaking workforce, accounts for at least 50 percent of the global outsourcing market and the industry is a vital exporter.