Reliance Industries’ shares soared over 6 per cent in early trade today after the company reported a 24 per cent jump in the third quarter net profit, the first increase after four quarters of declining returns, on the back of record earnings from oil refining business.
Buoyed by the impressive numbers, the scrip opened higher and further gained 6.21 per cent to Rs 954.80 — its 52-week high on the BSE. On the NSE, the stock zoomed 6 per cent to a one-year high of Rs 955.
The scrip was the top gainer among the blue-chips on both the benchmark indices — Sensex and Nifty.
“Reliance Industries’ topline as well as bottomline were above our estimates on account of higher-than-expected profitability from refining segment,” said Bhavesh Chauhan, Senior Research Analyst at Angel Broking.
The company had on Friday reported a 23.9 per cent jump in net profit at Rs 5,502 crore for the October-December quarter over Rs 4,440 crore in the same period a year ago.
The better-than-estimated quarterly profit came on the back of rise in earnings from turning crude oil into petrol, diesel and other petroleum products.
RIL, which operates the world’s biggest refining complex at Jamnagar in Gujarat, earned $9.6 on turning every barrel of crude oil into fuel during the quarter, compared with $6.8 per barrel gross refining margin in the same period a year ago.
Sales were up over 10 per cent at Rs 96,307 crore.