Indian Oil second-quarter profit drops on higher forex, raw material costs

(Reuters) - State-run refiner Indian Oil Corp Ltd posted a 12.2 percent fall in second-quarter profit on Friday, missing estimate by a wide margin, dented by forex expenses and raw material costs.

Net profit came in at 32.47 billion rupees ($446.92 million) in the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with 36.96 billion rupees a year earlier, IOC said https://bit.ly/2JytukW.

Analysts on average had expected a profit of 50.88 billion rupees, according to Refinitiv data.

Average gross refining margin for the April-Sept period - the difference between the cost of crude oil processed and the prices of refined products - dropped to $8.45 per barrel from $6.08 per barrel a year earlier.

Revenue from operations rose nearly 37 percent to 1.52 trillion rupees.

($1 = 72.7200 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Tanvi Mehta in Bengaluru, Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)