India's Dr. Reddy's Q3 net falls 29 pct, lags forecast

MUMBAI Feb 14 (Reuters) - Dr. Reddy's Laboratories , India's No.2 drugmaker by sales, reported a larger-than-expected 29.2 percent drop in quarterly net profit as sales in its key North America market remained muted.

Consolidated net profit fell to 3.63 billion rupees ($67.5 million) in the fiscal third quarter ended December, from 5.13 billion rupees a year earlier, the drugmaker said on Thursday. Income from sales and services grew 3.5 percent to 28.65 billion rupees.

Analysts on an average had forecast a net profit of 4.42 billion rupees on net sales of 29.65 billion rupees, according Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Valued $6 billion, shares in Dr. Reddy's Laboratories were down 1.3 percent to 1,879.30 rupees by 0825 GMT when the Mumbai market was down 0.12 percent. ($1 = 53.7850 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Kaustubh Kulkarni; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)