M&M Q4 net up 44 pct, beats forecast

REUTERS - Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, India's biggest utility vehicles maker, reported a better-than-expected 44 percent rise in quarterly profit, helped by an exceptional gain and strong volume growth by its tractor and car businesses.

Mahindra, one of the world's biggest tractor manufacturers, said on Wednesday net profit for the March quarter was 8.74 billion rupees, against 6.06 billion rupees a year earlier.

Net sales rose 39 percent to 92.4 billion rupees.

Analysts on average expected profit of 6.20 billion rupees on revenues of 82.6 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

(Reporting by Henry Foy in MUMBAI; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan)