RIL trades flat ahead of Q1 results

Reliance Industries (RIL) is trading almost flat at Rs 727 ahead of its financial results for first quarter of current fiscal, schedule to announce today after market hours.

The stock opened at Rs 722, have touched a high of Rs 729 and low of Rs 717 so far on the National Stock Exchange. A combined 2.36 million shares have changed hands on the counter so far.

Analyst at Emkay Global Finance Services expects RIL to post a revenue growth of 8.9% at Rs 88,238 crore on year-on-year (y-o-y) basis. The operating profit may decline 24% at Rs 7,530 crore; while net profit may fall by 21.5% at Rs 4,440 crore on y-o-y basis.

Weaker profit due to the cost of turning crude oil into naphtha and diesel in the quarter ended June 30 probably narrowed refining margins, said analyst at ICICI Securities.

“Singapore gross refining margins (GRM) have declined QoQ from $7.7/barrel in Q4FY12 to $6.7/barrel in Q1FY13 mainly on account of a drop in distillate crack spreads,” ICICI Securities said in a recent report