Cheerios cereal maker General Mills posts 2% rise in sales

Dec 20 (Reuters) - General Mills Inc's  (NYSE:GIS) quarterly sales rose 2.1 percent, helped by strong demand for its cereal and snack brands such as Lucky Charms and Nature Valley.

Net income attributable to the company fell to $430.5 million in the second quarter ended Nov. 26 from $481.8 million a year earlier, due to heavy discounting.

On a per-share basis, earnings fell to 74 cents from 80 cents.

The company's net sales rose to $4.20 billion from $4.11 billion.

(Reporting by Gayathree Ganesan in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)