(Recasts with analyst quotes, details)
MADRAS, India, July 26 (Reuters) - Ashok Leyland Ltd, India's second-largest truck maker, reported on Friday a better-than-expected profit for April-June, versus a loss a year earlier, helped by higher sales and a tight control on costs.
First-quarter net profit, after an extraordinary charge towards the amortisation of voluntary retirement expenses, was 97.47 million rupees ($1.94 million), versus a loss of 94.04 million rupees a year earlier.
The median net profit -- after the charge -- in a survey of five analysts conducted by Reuters was 67 million rupees.
Sales, including excise duty, rose 11.4 percent to 6.5 billion rupees. The median of analysts' estimates for sales, excluding excise, was 6.11 billion rupees.
"The results in line with expectations, with profitability clearly showing healthy growth," said S Krishnakumar, vice president at Anush Shares and Securities.
"But sales by value have disappointed, given that volumes grew 19.2 percent."
The company's shares fell after the results to end down six percent at 95.55 rupees on the Bombay Stock Exchange, whose benchmark index shed 2.14 percent.
Pramod Amthe, an auto analyst at Cholamandalam Securities, said they appeared to have fallen more due to the general bearish sentiment on auto stocks.
Shares of Tata Engineering and Locomotive Co Ltd (TELCO), India's largest truck maker, closed down 6.66 percent at 132.50 rupees.
TELCO had beat forecasts by announcing a profit of 280.3 million rupees on Thursday, compared with a loss a year earlier.
Analysts said lower-than-expected volume sales to the high-margin defence sector also seemed to have hurt overall sales of Ashok Leyland, the Indian flagship of the U.K.-based billionaire Hinduja brothers.
"I think defence sector sales have not happened to the anticipated level and probably the product mix has also not been favourable in terms of higher-value products," Krishnakumar said. (US$1 = 48.68 rupees)