Hindustan Unilever Profit Rose 6.2% in Jan-March Quarter

MUMBAI-Hindustan Unilever Ltd., India's largest consumer-goods maker, on Wednesday reported a 6.2% rise in net profit in the three months ended March 31, helped by stronger-than-expected sales growth.

Profit for quarter climbed to 11.83 billion rupees ($185 million), from 11.14 billion rupees a year earlier. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected a profit of 10.8 billion rupees.

Revenue rose 7% from a year earlier to 87.73 billion rupees.

The company's domestic consumer business grew 8%, while personal-care segment growth also improved as input costs stabilized, the company said in a statement.

"With gradual improvement in market conditions, we remain optimistic about the medium-term outlook for our sector," Chairman Harish Manwani said.

The stock closed 0.8% higher before the results, which came after the market closed.

Write to Debiprasad Nayak at Debiprasad.Nayak@wsj.com.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 17, 2017 07:20 ET (11:20 GMT)