Coal India Q3 net profit up 9 pct, beats estimates

MUMBAI Feb 13 (Reuters) - Coal India Ltd, the world's largest coal miner, posted a 9 percent increase in quarterly profit, beating market expectations, helped by strong sales volumes and lower-than-expected rise in costs.

The state-run miner said its October-December net profit rose to 43.95 billion rupees ($815 million) from 40.40 billion a year earlier. Net sales rose 13 percent to 173.25 billion rupees.

On average, analysts had forecast net profit of 40 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters Starmine data. ($1 = 53.93 rupees) (Reporting by Prashant Mehra; Editing by Daniel Magnowski and Anand Basu)