Cummins India's quarterly profit rises on lower expenses

Feb 4 (Reuters) - Engine maker Cummins India CUMM.NS reported a nearly 6% rise in adjusted quarterly profit on Wednesday, helped by lower expenses despite a drop in revenue from a year ago.

The company, a unit of U.S.-based truck engine maker Cummins Inc CMI.N, posted consolidated profit before tax and exceptional items of 6.95 billion rupees ($76.89 million), up from 6.57 billion rupees a year ago.

Profit after tax fell nearly 13% to 4.86 billion rupees, due to a one-time charge of 1.27 billion rupees related to India's new labour codes.

Cummins' Indian unit is a key supplier of power generation equipment to industrial clients and also produces engines for trucks and ships, as well as propulsion systems for trains.

India's industrial output picked up towards the end of the quarter along with manufacturing activity. After a 0.5% rise in October, output jumped 7.2% in November and 7.8% in December. INIP=ECI

Analysts had said they expect modest sales growth for Cummins in the quarter due to a high base in the year-ago period, noting a slowdown in orders for power generating equipment from data centres due to "front-ending" of deliveries in the second quarter.

Cummins' income from operations fell 1.5% to 30.06 billion rupees. Expenses dropped nearly 3% for the quarter, to 24.75 billion rupees.

Shares of the company closed 0.88% higher ahead of the results.

($1 = 90.3920 Indian rupees)