India's Mahindra beats street with 20 pct rise in Q1 net

Aug 8 (Reuters) - Mahindra & Mahindra, India's biggest utility vehicle manufacturer, beat street estimates with a 20 percent rise in first-quarter net profit, as strong demand for its sporty cars offset sluggish sales at its key tractor business.

Mahindra said on Wednesday net profit for the June quarter was 7.26 billion rupees ($132 million), against 6.05 billion rupees a year earlier.

Net sales rose 40 percent to 92.48 billion rupees.

Analysts, on average, had expected profit of 6.25 billion rupees, on revenue of 90.45 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

($1 = 55.1550 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Henry Foy in MUMBAI; Editing by Kim Coghill)