MUMBAI: India's Reliance Industries announced better-than-expected profits Friday as income from core operations of refining and petrochemicals offset the impact from the slump in global oil prices.
The Mumbai-based firm owned by Mukesh Ambani, India's wealthiest man, said in a statement that standalone profit in the three months until June 30 rose 11.8 percent to 63.18 billion rupees ($987.19 million) from 56.49 billion rupees a year ago.
This outpaced the profit estimate of 62.5 billion rupees predicted by sixteen analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
Reliance chairman, Mukesh Ambani, said the firm's "integrated hydrocarbon chain activities" helped it perform well despite crashing global prices.
Ambani added that "the sharp increase in demand for transportation fuels helped us realise strong refining margins."
The firm's gross refining margin -- earning from each barrel of crude -- jumped 19.5 percent to $10.40 in the June quarter from $8.70 per barrel a year ago.
Strong margins helped Reliance offset impact of the 44.9 percent fall in its export earnings to 367.17 billion rupees and the 28.1 percent fall in its revenue to 714.12 billion rupees.
Although Reliance derives most of its earnings from its massive energy operations, it is trying to diversify and owns a supermarket chain and a telecommunications company.
Reliance Jio Infocomm has already seen billions of dollars being poured in by its parent for purchasing wireless spectrum and other infrastructure and was expected to start India's first 4G mobile services by end of this year.
But now full commercial operations for Jio are expected to start only in the next financial year, the company said in statement.
Meanwhile, Reliance's supermarket chain added 126 new stores across India taking the total count to 2,747, the company said.
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