MUMBAI: The coronavirus wave that hit India this year badly ate into the earnings of the country’s biggest software exporter Tata Consultancy Services, the company said Thursday.

The IT giant reported net profit of 90.08 billion rupees ($1.20 billion) in the quarter ended June 30, an increase of 28 percent on the same quarter last year when figures were also cut by the pandemic.

On a quarterly basis, however, the profit of India’s second most valuable company by market capitalisation declined by 2.6 percent, despite a strong performance in North America and Europe.

Wage hikes also affected what is usually a strong quarter for India’s IT sector, resulting in TCS’s operating margins shrinking by 1.3 percent quarter on quarter, to 25.5 percent. Revenues jumped 18.5 percent year on year, to 48.85 billion rupees, but against the previous quarter rose only 2.4 percent.—AFP