* This content was produced in Russia where the law restricts coverage of Russian military operations in Ukraine

MOSCOW, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Russian retailer M.Video-Eldorado on Thursday reported a bigger net loss for the first half of 2022, as major brands pulling out of Russia or suspending operations hit the local consumer electronics market.

The group's first-half net loss widened to 3.7 billion roubles ($61.82 million) from 2.9 billion a year earlier, M.Video said. Revenue rose 1.5% year on year to 218.8 billion roubles.

In the weeks after Moscow sent tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, M.Video warned of challenges ahead, as the West announced sanctions packages and many foreign companies suspended their Russian operations, with rouble volatility and supply chain disruptions plaguing the Russian market.

Shares in the retailer fell 3% in morning trading in Moscow following the earnings report.

"With the Q2 headwinds of high economic uncertainty, unstable supply, and major brands pulling out of Russia or suspending operations in the country, the local consumer electronics market saw a noticeable decline," the company said in a statement.

Western sanctions and the exodus of technology companies from the Russian market have hit retailers like M.Video, limiting the range of goods available to put on store shelves in the six months since Russia launched what it calls its "special military operation".

Earlier this year the company started selling used smartphones in a bid to meet consumer demand for cheaper alternatives.

In its report, M.Video said earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) rose 51.1% year on year in the first half of the year to 7 billion roubles ($117 million), which the company attributed to a fall in part to a 1.3 percentage point decline in selling, general and administrative expenses.

M.Video said the group's gross merchandise value (GMV), a measure of transaction volumes, fell 29.2% to 85.0 billion roubles in the second quarter, with online sales accounting for just over two-thirds of the company's total sales.

As Western brands halted supplies to Russia, the company said it saw stronger sales of brands from China, Turkey, Belarus and other ex-Soviet countries in the second quarter.

Own-brand products also performed strongly, with up to six-fold sales growth compared to the previous year, mirroring a wider pattern across Europe, where a global cost of living crisis driven by soaring energy prices appears to be turbo-charging the trend for private label sales rises.

Overall sales of private-label goods increased 28% in the second quarter.

In July, M.Video said it would more than halve its 2022 investment programme and was looking to diversify its supply chains.

The retailer, one of Russia's largest consumer-focused chains, is seen as a bellwether for the health of Russia's consumer economy and household confidence in the state of their finances.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Jason Neely and Christopher Cushing)