Tata Steel posts Q3 profit of 5 bln rupees; lags estimates

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Tata Steel Ltd , the biggest Indian steelmaker by capacity, posted a smaller-than-expected quarterly profit as higher raw material costs ate into margins. Tata Steel, also the second-largest steel producer in Europe, posted a net profit of 5 billion rupees for the December-ending quarter, compared to a net loss of 7.89 billion rupees a year ago.

Net sales rose 14 percent to 364.1 billion rupees.

Analysts had expected a profit of 7.51 billion rupees on revenue of 336.52 billion rupees, according to data from Thomson Reuters StarMine.

(Reporting by Prashant Mehra; Editing by Aradhana Aravindan)