Net profit fell to 19.31 billion rupees in three months to December 31, from 21.10 billion rupees a year earlier.

New Delhi: India’s third-largest software services exporter Wipro posted an 8.5 percent drop in third-quarter net profit on Friday, hurt by higher costs.

Net profit fell to 19.31 billion rupees ($303 million) in the three months to December 31, from 21.10 billion rupees a year earlier, Wipro said on Friday.

The average forecast from analysts was for profit of 21.58 billion rupees, Thomson Reuters data showed.

Revenue from Wipro’s IT services segment rose marginally to 132.35 billion rupees.