NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Tata Motors Ltd, India's biggest automaker by revenue, reported a drop in quarterly net profit due to a spike in costs despite steady sales of its luxury Jaguar Land Rover unit and an increase in demand for its cars in its home market.
Tata Motors reported a 56 percent fall in net profit to 17.17 billion rupees ($268.3 million) for the January-March quarter, compared with 39.18 billion rupees a year earlier. Net sales rose 4 percent to 672.98 billion rupees.
Analysts had on average expected a profit of 40.95 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters Starmine.
($1 = 64.0000 rupees)
(Reporting by Aditi Shah; Editing by Prateek Chatterjee)