MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's oil-to-telecoms conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd reported on Friday a better-than-expected 18 percent increase in first-quarter profit on higher margins from its core refining business.
Consolidated net profit rose to 71.13 billion rupees ($1.1 billion) for the three months to June 30, from 60.24 billion rupees a year earlier, Reliance, controlled by India's richest man Mukesh Ambani, said in a statement.
Analysts on average had expected a net profit of 65.15 billion rupees, according to data compiled by Thomson Reuters.
The gross refining margin on each barrel of crude processed - a key profitability gauge - was $11.5 in the June quarter, compared with $10.4 a year earlier.
($1 = 67.0288 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Abhirup Roy and Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Biju Dwarakanath)