Jan 19 (Reuters) - Home appliances and electrical goods maker Havells India reported a 8.1% rise in third-quarter profit, bolstered by healthy demand in its core cables segment.

The company reported a profit of 3.01 billion rupees ($33.1 million) for the three months ended December 31, up from 2.78 billion rupees a year ago.

Revenue from operations climbed 14.3% to 55.88 billion rupees, buoyed by a 32.8% growth in the cables segment, its biggest.

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KEY CONTEXT

Demand for wires and cables stayed healthy on the back of increased infrastructure spending by the government and the private sector as well as a strong real estate market.

Peer Polycab India posted a nearly 36% increase in profit last week, supported by strong demand in its mainstay wires and cables segment.

PEER COMPARISON

Valuation (next 12 Estimates (next 12 Analysts' sentiment

months) months)

RIC PE EV/EBI Price/ Revenue profit Mean # of Stock to Div

TDA Sales growth (%) growth rating* analyst price yield

(%) s target** (%)

Havells India Ltd 46.80 31.36 3.51 14.10 21.48 BUY 24 0.85 0.70

Polycab India Ltd 36.23 23.91 3.42 20.07 18.88 BUY 27 0.84 0.49

R R Kabel Ltd 31.82 20.80 - 16.64 26.16 BUY 8 0.87 0.54

KEI Industries Ltd 40.82 27.26 - 21.12 18.70 BUY 15 0.95 0.09

* The mean of analysts' ratings standardised to a scale of Strong Buy, Buy, Hold, Sell, and Strong Sell

** The ratio of the stock's last close to analysts' mean price target; a ratio above 1 means the stock is trading above the PT

OCTOBER-DECEMBER STOCK PERFORMANCE

($1 = 90.9480 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Yagnoseni Das in Bengaluru; Editing by Ronojoy Mazumdar and Janane Venkatraman)