Mumbai, April 19: The infotech sector?s strong march, that was started by Infosys and TCS during the current results season, continues with Wipro and HCL Technologies posting robust numbers.

Wipro?s net profit for 2005-06 grew 35 per cent at Rs 2,020.5 crore from Rs 1,494.8 crore in the previous fiscal. Total income rose 42 per cent to Rs 10,379.6 crore from Rs 7,326.7 crore in 2004-05. The board has proposed a final dividend of Rs 5 per share.

HCL Technologies, which posted its third quarter results, showed a rise of over 75 per cent in net profit at Rs 134.76 crore against Rs 76.76 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.

Total income stood at Rs 729.72 crore, an increase of almost 97 per cent from Rs 371.13 crore recorded during the same period last fiscal. The board has declared an interim dividend of Rs 4 per share.

Wipro reported a strong growth for the fourth quarter as well. Its earnings surged 56 per cent to Rs 657.5 crore compared with Rs 421.4 crore in the year-ago period.

Total income stood at Rs 3,546.9 crore against Rs 2,084.3 crore, a growth of 70 per cent.

However, in contrast to Infosys and TCS, the duo failed to ignite the sentiments on Dalal Street today.

Expectations from Wipro?s annual numbers had propelled the stock 10.6 per cent in the past two days to 570.15 on April 18 from Rs 515.35.

Although the stock touched Rs 598.90 after the results were announced, it cooled off to end the day at Rs 559.90, down Rs 10.25, or 1.8 per cent.

The HCL stock ended the day with a higher loss of Rs 48.85, or 7.5 per cent, at Rs 602.3, after rising to an intra day high of Rs 675.

Wipro is expecting around $533 million in revenue from global IT services business during the first quarter. It also expects stable billing rates in the April-June quarter with an upward bias.

?Last fiscal we crossed several landmarks ? Rs 10,000 crore in total revenues, $2 billion in IT businesses revenues, Rs 500 crore of quarterly profits, 5 per cent revenue contribution from innovation initiatives and a team size of 50,000,? said Azim Premji, Wipro chairman.

?The IT services industry is evolving from an era of routine service provisioning to one of innovative knowledge creation. The strategic initiatives we propose to undertake over the next few years will position us well to lead this evolution,? he added.

Chief financial officer Suresh Senapaty said during the fourth quarter, Wipro continued to see broad-based revenue growth with its ?differentiated? services ? testing and technology infrastructure services ? continuing to deliver significantly higher growth rates.