Bangalore: IT major Wipro Ltd on October 17 reported a revenue of Rs 1,374.5 crore for the second quarter ending September 30, an increase of 29 per cent over Rs 1,062.1 crore reported during the corresponding quarter last year.

Profits grew by four per cent at Rs 230.2 crore during the period June to September 2003, over Rs 220.4 crore reported during the second quarter last year.

"Strong volume growth and declining pricing pressure resulted in revenues of $ 222 million in our global IT services business ahead of our guidance of $ 210 million. During the quarter, we saw robust sequential growth across all business segments in our global IT business," Wipro Chairman Azim Premji said in a statement.

"Business prospects continue to be promising, with healthy volume growth and prices moving in a narrow band. Looking ahead, for the quarter ending December 2003, we expect revenue from our global IT services business to be approximately $ 241 million," he said.

Wipro said revenues during the six-month period of April to September stood at Rs 2,574 crore, an increase of 29 per cent over the previous year, while profits grew by 20 per cent at Rs 436 crore over the previous year.

"This quarter we saw customers demonstrating both growing confidence in our end-to-end service model as well as an increased willingness to increase spending. Our technology business continued to recover, with sequential growth of 16 per cent, including telecom, which grew sequentially by 14 per cent," Wipro Vice Chairman Vivek Paul said.

PTI