BMW, the world’s top maker of luxury cars, reported forecast-beating profit for the second quarter, driven by sales of its popular 5 Series model and rising demand from brand-conscious China. Earnings before interest and tax as a percentage of revenue grew to 9.6 per cent in the three months to June from a loss last year, far exceeding the 6 per cent expected in a Reuters poll.“This is the highest level of profitability since 2006,” Sanford Bernstein analyst Max Warburton wrote, adding that BMW, Merc-edes Benz and Volks-wagen’s Audi brand may be entering a new period of record profitability as long as Chinese demand and a favourable US dollar exchange rate hold up.