ONGC reports 12 percent rise in fourth quarter profit, beating estimates

NEW DELHI/MUMBAI (Reuters) - Oil and Natural Gas Corp , India's biggest oil explorer, reported on Thursday a surprise 12 percent rise in fourth-quarter net profit, helped by a one-off gain.

Net profit on a standalone basis was 44.16 billion rupees ($657.5 million) for the three months to March 31, compared with 39.35 billion rupees a year earlier, the state-run company said in a regulatory filing.

Analysts on average had expected a net profit of 28.17 billion rupees, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters.

ONGC said it partly reversed a previously-taken charge, leading to a one-off gain of 8.52 billion rupees in the fourth quarter.

 

($1 = 67.1600 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Sankalp Phartiyal and Promit Mukherjee; Editing by Sunil Nair)