Reliance Industries posts 23% drop in Q2 net profit

Oil-to-telecoms conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd posted a 22.9 per cent drop in its second-quarter net profit, marginally missing analysts' estimates.

Consolidated net profit fell to Rs 72.06 billion ($1.08 billion) for the three months to Sept. 30 from Rs 93.45 billion reported a year earlier, Reliance, controlled by India's richest man Mukesh Ambani, said in a statement on Thursday.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of Rs 72.2 billion,  according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters.

Reliance said its gross refining margin, or profit earned on each barrel of crude processed - a key profitability gauge for a refiner - was $10.1 per barrel for the quarter.