UPDATE 2-Thomas & Betts Q2 profit beats Street view

(Recasts; adds conference call details, share movement)

July 23 (Reuters) - Thomas & Betts Corp (TNB.N), a maker of electrical components, reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit, helped by acquisitions, and it also raised its full-year earnings outlook.

The company said commodity and energy-related price increases, which offset lower underlying sales volumes, will be more significant in the second half.

Underlying sales volumes at the electrical segment, the company's largest business, fell 2 percent, hurt by continued slowdown in U.S. residential construction.

"Residential construction remains very weak, but we believe that it is at or near the bottom. We don't expect to see growth resume in this market until late next year at the earliest," Chief Executive Dominic Pileggi said in a conference call.

He, however, said international, commercial and industrial markets, which account for more than one-third of the company's revenue, will continue to show resilience.

For the second quarter, net income was $147.8 million, or $2.54 a share, compared with $46.6 million, or 80 cents a share, in the year-ago period.

The latest quarter's results include gains of $1.74 a share from a stake sale and 13 cents a share from legal settlements. It also includes a non-cash tax charge of 24 cents a share related to deferred income taxes.

Revenue rose more than 26 percent to $641.3 million. Analysts expected the company to earn 88 cents a share, before special items, on revenue of $646.1 million, according to Reuters Estimates.

Acquisitions, all of which were in the key electrical segment, contributed 22.5 percent to the sales increase.

Looking forward, Pileggi expects the company to save more more than $20 million annually through integrations that have been incorporated into the earnings forecast.

For the full year, the company expects earnings of $5.50 to $5.65 a share, primarily due to the $1.50 gain from the stake sale and non-cash tax charge.

Its prior forecast was $3.93 to $4.08 a share, including a gain of 13 cents a share from legal settlement. Analysts were expecting $3.78 a share, before special items.

Shares of the company were up nearly 2 percent at $39.52 in afternoon trade on the New York Stock Exchange. (Reporting by Bhaswati Mukhopadhyay in Bangalore and Eric Yep in Bangalore; Editing by Anil D'Silva)