Tata Consultancy Services is India's leading outsourcing specialist

The company said second quarter profits before one-off costs came in at 5.76bn rupees ($125m; �70m), up by 52% on the same period last year.

The figure outstripped the 5.3bn rupees pencilled in by forecasters.

Sales rose 44% on the year to 24.3bn rupees as more companies hired Tata to run their technical support services.

Client list

Tata's strong sales growth confirms that the recent trend towards outsourcing, where multinationals contract other companies to run back-office operations such as computer support and human resources, is still going strong.

India's highly educated and comparatively cheap labour force has made it the leading beneficiary of the trend.

Tata Consultancy Services, part of the Tata industrial group, is the country's leading outsourcing specialist, followed by Infosys, which on Tuesday reported a 50% jump in quarterly profits.

Tata said on Monday that it had signed up 52 new customers in the three months to September.

Stock market star

It added that its biggest customer, US conglomerate GE, accounted for 15.9% of its sales in the second quarter, down from 17.1% in the April to June period.

Analysts said Tata's reduced dependence on a single customer was a positive sign.

"GE's contribution to revenue coming down augurs well in the long run," said R. Ravi, an analyst at IDBI Capital markets.

Tata shares were not trading on Wednesday as the Bombay Stock Exchange was closed for state elections.

Tata raised $1.2bn six weeks ago through its stock market flotation, which ranks as India's biggest ever initial public offering.