Feb 27 (Reuters) - Australian grocer Coles Group Ltd COL.AX reported a 3% drop in its first-half profit on Thursday as a rise in financing costs associated with leases offset strong sales growth at its Supermarket business.

The country's second-largest grocer reported net profit after tax from continuing operations of A$576 million ($362.76 million) for the six months ended December 31, compared with A$594 million it posted a year ago.

That was in line with a Visible Alpha consensus estimate of A$574.1 million.

($1 = 1.5878 Australian dollars)

(Reporting by Sameer Manekar and Roshan Thomas in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)

((Roshan.Thomas@thomsonreuters.com))