NIIT Technologies has announced the results for the three month period ended December 31, 2008.

During its third quarter, the IT services firm has posted a fall of 52% in its consolidated net profit, which stood at Rs 168 million as against Rs 347 million during the corresponding period of the last year.

The company said the decline in net profit was mainly because of currency fluctuations, the dollar’s appreciation against the Indian currency and the weakening of the pound, which shaved Rs 32.8 crore off its net profit.

The company posted a growth of 6% in its consolidated revenues to Rs 248.5 crore.

NIIT Technologies’ operating margins declined 105 basis points to 17.95%, as against 19% during the last year.

While announcing the company’s quarterly results on Wednesday, Mr. Arvind Thakur, Company’s CEO stated, “There will be a short-term impact as clients re-adjust to the environment. We are consolidating our position among key clients, improving cost structure and making our business more non-linear to deal with the changes.”

The company pocketed orders worth $148 million during the December quarter. In the previous fiscal year, to March 2008, it had signed $229 million of deals.

It also said that it had frozen recruitment and saw a decline of 229 people in its headcount, attributing it to attrition.

At the end of December 2008, NIIT Technologies had 4,438 employees on its payrolls.

Shares of the company, (on Wednesday) fell 3.12% to settle at Rs 59.05 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). The total volume of shares traded was 221,638.