22 Jan 2009, 1639 hrs IST, REUTERS
India's largest listed company, Reliance Industries Ltd, said its quarterly profit fell 8.8 percent, its first drop in three years, but beat forecasts as refining margins did not fall as much as expected. The petrochemical and refining giant reported a net profit of Rs 3,501 crore ($713 million) for its fiscal third quarter ended December 31, compared with Rs 3,837 crore excluding one-off gains reported a year earlier.
A Reuters poll had forecast a net profit of 30.98 billion rupees.
The company is set to get an earnings boost when it starts pumping 30-40 million cubic metres of natural gas a day from its deep-sea fields off India's east coast in the second half of February.
Ahead of the results, shares in Reliance, which has a market value of around $36 billion, closed up 1.21 percent at Rs 1,132.95 in a Mumbai market that rose 0.4 percent.
The stock fell 37 percent in the December quarter, more than a 25 percent drop in the benchmark index and 33 percent loss in the sector index.
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