Ashok Leyland third-quarter profit falls, but beats expectations

(Reuters) - Automaker Ashok Leyland Ltd posted a 21.5 percent fall in its third-quarter profit on Thursday, hurt by weak consumer demand.

Profit fell to 3.81 billion rupees ($53.56 million) for the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with 4.85 billion rupees a year earlier, the company said.

Analysts on average had expected the company to post a profit of 2.76 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv data.

Income from operations dipped 11.4 percent to 62.45 billion rupees.

($1 = 71.1360 rupees)

(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta in Bengaluru; Editing by Shreejay Sinha)