By Sankalp Phartiyal
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Indian IT outsourcing group Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) reported an 8.4 percent rise in second-quarter profits on Thursday, despite saying some clients had been holding back on spending due to an uncertain business climate.
TCS first warned in September that its financial sector clients were holding back on discretionary spending. The United States is the biggest market for India's $150 billion software services outsourcing industry, followed by Europe.
Net profit in the three months ended Sept. 30 rose to 65.86 billion rupees ($989 million), up from 60.73 billion rupees in the same period last year and ahead of analysts' forecasts of around 62.93 billion rupees.
Revenue for the quarter increased by 7.8 percent on the same period last year to 292.84 billion rupees, a rise of just 0.1 percent on the previous three months.
TCS Chief Executive N. Chandrasekaran called it an "unusual" second quarter for the company, but was optimistic for the future.
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"Growing uncertainties in the environment is creating caution among customers and resulted in holdbacks in discretionary spending this quarter," Chandrasekaran said in a statement.
"With technology increasingly at the forefront of business, we are confident that this is temporary," he said.
TCS first warned in September that its financial sector clients were holding back on discretionary spending. The United States is the biggest market for India's $150 billion software services outsourcing industry, followed by Europe.
The company has said it will push into digital services such as big data, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence among other things, as it seeks to expand beyond its traditional business and boost revenues.
During the September quarter, TCS said it added one client contributing annual revenues of more than $50 million, and six in the $20 million-plus band. It had gross employee additions of 22,665 during the quarter, taking its total to 371,519.
Ahead of the results shares in TCS, valued at nearly $70 billion, fell 2.2 percent in a Mumbai market that closed 1.6 percent lower. The company is India's biggest by market capitalisation.
TCS' closest rival Infosys Ltd is due to report quarterly results on Friday.
($1 = 66.5919 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal; Editing by Keith Weir, Greg Mahlich)