Tata Steel swings to profit in third quarter

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's Tata Steel Ltd posted a consolidated net profit of 2.32 billion rupees ($34.4 million) in its fiscal third quarter on higher sales.

The steelmaker, which also has operations in Europe, had posted a consolidated net loss of 27.48 billion rupees in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue rose 14 percent from a year earlier to 293.92 billion rupees for the three months to Dec. 31, the company said in a stock exchange filing.

Analysts, on average, had expected a net profit of 1.74 billion rupees, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters.

($1 = 67.4200 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)