UPDATE 1-M/I Homes posts Q4 profit on tax benefits; shares up

* Q4 shr $0.38 vs. yr-ago shr loss $5.38

* New contracts up 32 pct

* Shares up 9 pct

Feb 3 (Reuters) - Single-family homebuilder M/I Homes Inc (MHO.N) posted a quarterly profit, helped by a tax benefit and a rise in new contracts, sending its shares up as much as 9 percent.

For the fourth-quarter, the company posted earnings of $7 million, or 38 cents a share, compared with a loss of $75 million, or $5.38 a share, a year earlier.

The current quarter included a tax benefit of $31 million, offset in part by $23 million of asset impairments and $4 million of other charges.

Revenue rose 36 percent to $204.9 million in the quarter.

New contracts were up 32 percent to 448 and cancellation rate was 23 percent compared to 31 percent last year.

"While economic conditions remain difficult, the general economy is, by most measures, more stable today than it was last year at this time," CEO Robert Schottenstein said in a statement.

Shares of the company were up 9 percent at $13.16 on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Amulya Nagaraj in Bangalore; Editing by Aradhana Aravindan)