UPDATE 1-Microchip Technology posts higher Q1 earnings

(Recasts; adds details, share movement)

July 24 (Reuters) - Semiconductor maker Microchip Technology Inc (MCHP.O) posted higher first-quarter earnings, helped by strength in its microcontrollers business, sending its shares up 6 percent.

The company also forecast second-quarter earnings above market expectations.

For the first quarter, the company posted net income of $76.3 million, or 40 cents a share, compared with $80.3 million, or 36 cents a share, a year earlier.

Net sales rose 1.6 percent to $268.2 million.

Analysts on average were expecting earnings of 40 cents a share, before exceptional items, on revenue of $269.8 million, according to Reuters Estimates.

Revenue from its sixteen-bit microcontrollers rose 60 percent.

The Chandler, Arizona-based company forecast second-quarter earnings of about 44 cents to 45 cents a share, excluding items. It sees net sales for the quarter to be flat to up 3 percent sequentially.

Analysts were expecting earnings of 41 cents a share, before exceptional items, on revenue of $277.7 million.

Shares of the company rose to $32 in trading after the bell. They closed at $30.15 Thursday on Nasdaq. (Reporting by Purwa Naveen Raman in Bangalore; Editing by Pratish Narayanan)