Hindustan Petroleum second-quarter profit more than doubles, but misses estimates

(Reuters) - State-owned oil refiner Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd's second-quarter net profit more than doubled, but fell short of analysts' estimates.

Net profit for the three months ending Sept. 30 soared to 17.35 billion rupees ($267 million) from 7.01 billion rupees a year earlier, the company said in a filing on Thursday. http://bit.ly/2jd0DJR

Analysts on average had expected a profit of 20.58 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters Eikon data.

Average gross refining margin, the profit earned on each barrel of crude processed, advanced to $6.75 per barrel for the half year ended Sept. 30, from $5.12 per barrel in the same period last year.

Sales grew 13 percent to 541.53 billion rupees in the quarter.

($1 = 64.9900 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Krishna V Kurup in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier)