Better margins help Reliance Industries

Mumbai: Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Friday posted an 18.9 per cent growth in net profit for the quarter ended June 2013 on the back of improved margins in its refining business and growth in other income. During the quarter, the company’s net profit stood at Rs 5,352 crore as compared to Rs 4,503 crore reported during the same period of last year. However, the company’s income fell 4.6 per cent to Rs 90,589 crore from Rs 94,927 crore during the same period. The gross refining margin, the difference between the cost of a barrel of oil and value of all the products made out of it stood at $8.4 per barrel during the April-June quarter, up from $7.6 per barrel during the same period of last year. During the period the company’s other income grew by 33.14 per cent to Rs 2,535 crore from Rs 1,904 crore. Experts said that the company’s quarterly numbers were in line with street expectation and the company is expected to maintain the same level of perfomance for two-three quarters. “Given the kind of economic environment, RIL managed to post a gro-wth in its net profit and also improve its margins. The contribution from the capacity addition in its petro chemical business would start reflecting in the company’s numbers only by the second half of 2014-15,” observed Deven Choksey, managing director, K. R.Choksey Securities. The shares of RIL on Friday closed at Rs 923.15, up 0.67 per cent. The market experts feel that some amount of profit booking could be seen when the market opens next week.