The country's fourth-largest pharmaceutical company by domestic sales said its consolidated profit rose 60% to 4.54 billion rupees (nearly $55 million) for the October-December quarter, beating analysts' average estimate of 4.29 billion rupees, as per LSEG data.

Mankind Pharma, which also makes acute and chronic therapeutics, including anti-infectives, anti-diabetics and respiratory, said revenue from operations rose 25% to 26.07 billion rupees.

This was led by a 20% rise in its domestic business revenue, which accounts for most of the total, to 24 billion rupees, breaking a three-quarter streak of slowing growth since listing.

Mankind Pharma's domestic revenue had been under pressure as the country saw the slowest monsoon since 2018, a season when infectious diseases are common.

Increasing precautions since the waning of the Covid-19 pandemic also led to muted sales in the country.

The chronic drugs segment's share of domestic sales rose to 35% for the nine months ended Dec. 31, from 34% in the year-ago period, the Delhi-based company said.

Revenue from its popular consumer healthcare business segment, comprising brands such as Manforce male condoms and Prega News pregnancy test kits, and which accounted for nearly 6% of the total, however, fell 4.8% year-on-year to 1.49 billion rupees.

The company's profit margins also improved to 17.6% from 14.1% a year earlier.

The Manforce condom brand competes with Reckitt Benckiser Group's Durex and TTK Group's Skore.

Shares of Mankind Pharma settled 2.6% lower on Wednesday, ahead of results.

($1 = 83.0250 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Sohini Goswami)