| This was made possible by improved petrochemicals margins that offset lower refinery margins and the shut-down of the company's Hazira plant for 40 days due to floods. |
| While the petrochemicals volume stood at 3.96 million tonnes, growing year on year by 17 per cent, the margins grew by 20-40 per cent for at least four of the products "" paraxylene, polypropylene, PTA and polyethylene. |
| Most analysts said the numbers were either in sync with market expectations or better. While the market was expecting losses due to the Hazira shut-down to be in the range of Rs 100-150 crore, Reliance Industries reported a loss of Rs 34 crore. |
| The company registered an export surge, which enabled it to divert its domestic products to the export markets as retail outlets closed because of the increased prices of motor spirits. |
| Petrochemicals volumes and margins were both above market expectations. News agency Reuters quoted KR Choksey Vice-President Jigar Shah as saying: "The results are in line with the expectation. We had expected the company to generate good numbers. I think the petrochemicals business has helped and the profit performance has been really good." |
| Reliance, which operates a 660,000 barrels-per-day refinery in Jamnagar, said its gross refining margins stood at $9.1 a barrel in the July-September quarter, down from $10.4 a barrel in the same quarter last year. |
| The refining margins, which deliver more than two-thirds of Reliance's revenues, were still higher than the benchmark Asian refining margins, thanks to the company's ability to process cheaper crude and make high-quality products. |
| "EBIT margins were lower primarily due to softening of gross refining margins," the company said in a statement. |
| Reliance, which has a market value of more than $37 billion, earned $12.4 from each barrel of oil it refined in its first quarter till end of June. |
| The company also reported a higher than expected refining volume of 8.2 million tonnes. |
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