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By Ananya Mariam Rajesh and Jessica DiNapoli
(Reuters) -Procter & Gamble beat estimates for quarterly sales and profit on Wednesday, as its efforts to introduce new variants of its products such as Pantene shampoo and Tide detergent helped improve demand among price-conscious U.S. customers.
Shares of the company, considered a bellwether for the consumer goods sector, rose 3.3% in early trading.
P&G's second-quarter volumes grew 4% in the United States, the company's largest market, helped by investments in new products.
The company launched Olay Melts face soap pads and Tide Evo detergent tiles in test markets, and overhauled its lower-priced diaper brand Luvs, following a drop in demand due to repeated price hikes.
It reported a 2% rise in overall organic volumes, while the average prices across its product categories remained flat.
It was a bit surprising that pricing was flat across some of the verticals but volumes have grown, said Christian Greiner, Senior Portfolio Manager at F/m Investments, which has a stake in P&G.
"It lets (you) believe that these next couple quarters, you could really see some momentum," Greiner added.
P&G, however, maintained its annual forecasts as growth in China continues to lag previous records due to weak consumption.
Second-quarter sales in China, the company's third-largest market, declined 3%, CFO Andre Schulten said on a call with media, an improvement from deeper declines in the prior quarters.
The company has also started to see concerns related to demand for beauty brand SK-II in China ease, following several quarters of sales declines due to rising anti-Japanese sentiment. Sales of SK-II grew 5% in the second quarter.
The company's quarterly net sales rose 2.1% to $21.88 billion, compared with analysts' expectations of $21.54 billion, according to LSEG data.
It earned a profit of $1.88 per share, beating estimates of $1.86.
(Reporting by Ananya Mariam Rajesh in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli)