Maruti Suzuki reports first fall in quarterly net profit in two years

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's biggest automaker, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd , posted its first fall in quarterly net profit in two years, hit by higher expenses and production loss due to civil unrest near its factory, but met analyst estimates.

Net profit for the three months ended March 31 dropped 11.7 percent to 11.34 billion rupees ($170.10 million) from 12.8 billion in the year-ago quarter. Analysts had expected a profit of 11.3 billion, according to Thomson Reuters data.

Net sales of the carmaker, majority-owned by Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp , rose 12.5 percent to 149.3 billion rupees. The company, which sells about one in every two cars in India, said vehicle sales of 360,402 during the quarter were up 3.9 percent from a year earlier.

Maruti said it suffered a production loss of more than 10,000 vehicles due to civil unrest in February near its factory in northern India.

($1=66.6650 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Aditi Shah; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)