Russia's X5 raises full-year guidance and positive on 2015

* Sees 2014 sales growth at 17-19 pct vs 10-12 pct earlier

* Raises EBITDA margin fcast to 7.2-7.5 pct from 6.8-7.2 pct

* To consider secondary listing in Moscow - CEO

* Q3 net up 49 percent to 3.4 billion roubles (Adds possible Moscow listing, CEO quotes, shares, writes through)

By Maria Kiselyova and Olga Sichkar

MOSCOW, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Russia's second-biggest food retailer X5 Retail Group raised its 2014 forecasts on Wednesday, emerging largely unscathed from a food import ban, and said it was positive about next year despite challenging economic conditions.

X5 will also consider secondary listing of its shares on the Moscow Exchange, Chief Executive Stephan DuCharme said, in a move which could help meet investor demand for more crisis-resilient stocks at a time when the country's economy is being hit by Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis.

"We are in a positive mood regarding next year, we have built the right operational model, we have the right people in place and each of our formats has its own value proposition," DuCharme told reporters as X5 held a series of briefings for analysts and investors.

X5, majority owned by billionaire Mikhail Fridman, has been working on turning around its business after a strategy change in 2010 aimed at growing without acquisitions. It ceded its No.1 position by sales to low-cost rival Magnit and has suffered from multiple management reshuffles.

Russia's ban on many food imports in retaliation to Western sanctions added to the challenges X5 was facing and DuCharme said the ban had reduced X5's sales growth by up to 2 percentage points in the third quarter.

But a strong performance by its low-cost Pyaterochka stores, where customers flocked as the Russian economy weakened, still allowed it to revise up its 2014 sales growth guidance to between 17 and 19 percent, from 10 to 12 percent.

It also increased its EBITDA margin forecast to 7.2 to 7.5 percent from 6.8 to 7.2 percent and cut its capital spending plan to 34 billion roubles ($797 million) from 40 billion.

SALES INCREASE

The revisions came as X5 posted a 49 percent rise in third-quarter net profit to 3.4 billion roubles, echoing a trend set by Magnit and smaller rival O'Key which both reported sharp increases in their earnings.

X5's net retail sales in the first three months of the year increased by 23 percent to 152 billion roubles due to an increase in the number of customers and average ticket prices because of rising inflation.

Food is becoming more expensive for Russia's 140 million people due to a surge in inflation and a slide in the rouble to all-time lows. The Economy Ministry has said inflation may exceed 8 percent this year.

O'Key, Russia's fifth-largest food retailer, said on Tuesday shopping patterns had changed in the third quarter with consumers buying less per visit and shopping increasingly at small stores rather than "big box" outlets.

"Of course we are seeing a slowdown ... economic conditions and sanctions obviously weigh, but we find confidence in low unemployment and (the solid) consumer confidence index," Elena Milinova, X5 chief financial officer, said.

Shares (Berlin: DI6.BE - news) in X5 rose 0.7 percent to $17.6 by 1511 GMT and were up more than 7 percent since the beginning of the year.

The company has 5,000 stores mostly in the European part of Russia, including more than 4,000 economy-class Pyaterochka shops, almost 400 Perekrestok supermarkets and more than 80 Karusel hypermarkets.

(1 US dollar = 42.6370 Russian rouble) (Editing by Lidia Kelly and David Holmes)