RIL surges over 6%; hits 52-week high

Shares of Reliance Industries on Monday soared by over 6 per cent in early trade after the company reported 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, shares of the company opened higher and further gained 6.21 per cent to Rs 954.80 -- its 52-week high on the Bombay Stock Exchange.

At National Stock Exchange, the stock zoomed 6 per cent to a one-year high level of Rs 955.

The scrip was the top gainer among the bluechips on both benchmark indices -- Sensex and Nifty.

"Reliance Industries' top-line as well as bottom-line were above our estimates on account of higher than expected profitability from refining

segment," said Bhavesh Chauhan, Senior Research Analyst at Angel Broking.

Net profit in October-December at Rs 5,502 crore (Rs 55.02 billion) was 23.9 per cent higher over Rs 4,440 crore (Rs 44.4 billion) in the same period a year ago, RIL had said in a statement on Friday.

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 in the quarter, compared to $6.8 per barrel gross refining margin in the same period a year ago.

Sales were up over 10 per cent to Rs 96,307 crore (Rs 963.07 billion).

In the broader market, the BSE barometer Sensex was trading at 20,091.81, up 52.77 points at 1030 hours.