New Delhi: Reliance Industries today reported a bigger-than-expected 18 per cent jump in June quarter net profit on account of highest refining margin in eight years and robust petrochemical earnings.

Consolidated net profit at Rs 7,113 crore, or Rs 24.1 per share, in the April-June period was 18.1 per cent higher than Rs 6,024 crore in the same period of last fiscal, RIL said in a statement.

This was the ninth consecutive quarter for which the company posted highest segment profit for refining and petrochemical business.

RIL, which has in recent years invested in sectors like telecom, retail and financial services as it seeks to diversify revenue sources and reduce dependence on the oil and gas sector, however did not give any guidance on commercial launch of its 4G telecom and high-speed broadband services.

Revenue fell 13.4 per cent to Rs 71,451 crore, hurt by a sharp fall in prices of crude oil and petroleum products.

RIL, operator of the world’s biggest oil-refinery complex that can process low-grade crude and switch between fuels depending on market prices, earned USD 11.5 on turning every barrel of crude into petroleum product.

This was the highest gross refining margin it has earned in eight years, as against USD 10.8 per barrel in preceding January-March quarter and USD 10.4 in the first quarter of 2015-16 fiscal.

The company, which is investing USD 12 billion to boost petrochemical capacity and refinery processes as well as build facilities to import ethane from US, earned a 13.5 per margin on petrochem business.

“At Reliance, we continued to harness the power of our integrated energy and materials business portfolio. We maintained our earnings growth trajectory during this quarter, as the world grappled with new dimensions of economic uncertainty,” said Mukesh D Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director RIL.

Its debt rose to Rs 186,692 crore at the end of June from Rs 180,388 crore as on March 31, 2016. Cash in hand was up marginally at Rs 90,812 crore from Rs 89,966 crore at end of FY16.

Before the earning announcement, RIL shares closed 0.6 per cent higher Rs 1,012.55 on BSE.

PTI