BENGALURU, Feb 12 (Reuters) - India's Force Motors reported a fourth straight quarterly profit on Monday, helped by strong demand for its multi-seater passenger vehicles that are also used as school buses and ambulances, sending its shares up 5%.

The company, which also makes engines for BMW and Mercedes cars in India, posted a consolidated net profit of 854 million rupees ($10.3 million) in the third quarter, compared with a year-ago loss of 155.9 million rupees.

Until the year-ago quarter, the company had posted a string of losses as the COVID-19 pandemic and its fallout dented demand.

Industry-wide commercial vehicle sales rose 3.5% in the latest October-December quarter, while passenger vehicles sales jumped 8.3% to a record high, which analysts said, was due to festive season demand.

Force Motors' domestic sales jumped 10.6% in the quarter. Last week, Ashok Leyland posted a bigger-than-expected profit on strong demand for its trucks and buses.

While Force Motors gets about 48% of its revenue from vehicle sales, about 36% comes from contract engine manufacturing, according to its last annual report.

The company, which also makes tractors and off-roaders, said revenue from operations rose 29.7% to 16.92 billion rupees in the latest quarter.

Its cost of materials, which forms the majority of total expenses, rose 19.5%.

Force Motors' shares rose about 5% after the results. They fell about 5.4% in the December quarter, while Ashok Leyland had risen 2.6%. ($1 = 83.0175 Indian rupees) (Reporting by Meenakshi Maidas in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza)