NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Maruti Suzuki India Ltd posted a 27 percent rise in its third-quarter profit, the country's top-selling carmaker said in a statement on Thursday, but missed bullish analyst estimates.
Net profit for the three months ended Dec. 31, rose to 10.19 billion rupees ($149 million) compared with 8.02 billion rupees in the year-ago quarter. Analysts expected it to post a profit of 12.96 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Net sales of the carmaker, which is majority owned by Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp , rose 20 percent to 147.7 billion rupees. The company sold a total of 374,182 vehicles during the quarter.
Maruti, in December, won shareholder approval to buy its cars from a Gujarat plant to be funded by parent Suzuki, which will allow the Indian company to invest its surplus cash in other parts of the business like research and development.
($1 = 68.2102 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Aditi Shah; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)