India's Reliance Industries misses Q3 profit view as expenses mount

Bengaluru: Reliance Industries Ltd , India's biggest company by market valuation, reported a bigger-than-expected drop in quarterly profit on Friday, hurt by higher expenses and subdued performance at its key oil-to-chemicals business.

The Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate's consolidated profit fell nearly 15% to 157.92 billion rupees ($1.95 billion) in the third quarter.

It earned 185.49 billion rupees in the year-ago quarter, when it benefited from strong refining margins and demand for fuel.

Analysts, on average, had expected the company's profit to drop to 162.58 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv IBES.

Reliance's total expenses rose nearly 16% to 2.01 trillion rupees.

Revenue from operations grew 15.3% to 2.21 trillion rupees.

Downstream chemical products experienced margin pressure due to excess supply and relatively weak regional demand, Reliance said in a statement.