July 21 (Reuters) - TVS Motor, India's third-largest two-wheeler maker, reported a 51.4% jump in quarterly profit on Tuesday as robust demand for higher-margin motorcycles helped cushion the impact of a surge in raw material costs triggered by the Iran war.
The Jupiter scooter maker's profit rose to 11.74 billion rupees ($122 million) for the quarter ended June 30, from 7.76 billion rupees a year ago.
Shares of the two-wheeler maker climbed 5.6% after the results.
India's tax cut on two-wheelers last year has been helping demand, while a growing contribution from sales of premium motorcycles and electric scooters was seen helping TVS Motor protect its bottom line from elevated commodity costs.
As the company scales up EV production, the richer product mix should partly offset pressure from rising input costs, analysts have said.
TVS Motor's two-wheeler sales rose 27% year-on-year to about 1.6 million units in the June quarter, driven by strong domestic sales and an increase in exports.
Exports surged 33% during the quarter, while EV two-wheeler sales jumped 86%.
Revenue from operations jumped about 38% to 138.96 billion rupees while total expenses rose 37.4%.
Larger rival Bajaj Auto, which also posted its June quarter results on Tuesday, saw a 42.3% jump in its quarterly profit on strong domestic and overseas demand.
($1 = 96.2075 Indian rupees)
Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Harikrishnan Nair
Source: Reuters