*

Q3 net profit 123.80 bln rupees vs forecast 123.99 bln

*

Q3 consolidated revenue 639.73 bln rupees vs forecast

644.52 bln

*

Order book $10.2 bln vs $8.6 bln in Q2

(Recasts paragraph 1, adds CEO quotes from paragraph 3)

By Sai Ishwarbharath B and Haripriya Suresh

BENGALURU/MUMBAI, Jan 9 (Reuters) - India's No. 1

software services exporter Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

said on Thursday it is betting on Donald Trump's regime

to revive client confidence and discretionary spending in North

America.

The comments came after the leader of the $254 billion

Indian IT sector reported a decline in North American revenue

for the fifth-straight quarter.

"Once the new (U.S.) administration comes in, it will remove

any policy uncertainty," TCS CEO K Krithivasan said in a

post-earnings press conference.

Pointing also to a higher order book, Krithivasan said: "All

of this together, we see more confidence in discretionary

programmes in the coming years."

The Mumbai-based company also declared a special dividend of

66 rupees ($0.7691) per share.

Consolidated revenue at the Tata Group firm rose 5.6% to

639.73 billion rupees in the October-December quarter, but

missed analysts' average estimate of 644.52 billion rupees,

according to data compiled by LSEG.

TCS' quarterly net profit rose 12% to 123.80 billion rupees,

against analysts' mean estimate of 123.99 billion rupees.

"Revenue growth was below expectations but the third quarter

is a seasonally weak one as most clients ramp down operations

due to the holiday season," said Piyush Pandey, analyst at

Centrum Broking.

Pandey, however, highlighted deal wins and operating margin

improvement as "positives" that may aid a turnaround in the

United States in the coming quarters.

India's IT services industry has been facing a growth

slowdown over the last couple of years due to clients in the

U.S. and Europe cutting down on tech spending amid economic

pressures.

The company's total order book stood at $10.2 billion in the

quarter, compared with $8.6 billion in the previous quarter and

$8.1 billion in the year-ago period.

TCS is the first major IT firm to report numbers in the

current earnings cycle. Smaller rivals Infosys,

HCLTech, Wipro will report next week.

The Mumbai-listed shares closed 1.7% lower ahead of the

results.

($1 = 85.8420 Indian rupees)