ONGC shares gain after profit beats estimates

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Shares in state-run Oil and Natural Gas Corp gain around 2 percent in early trade on Tuesday, a day after its October-December net profit beat market expectations, helped by higher selling prices for oil and gas and slightly lower subsidy payouts to refineries.

ONGC posted net profit of 55.63 billion rupees for December quarter and its sales rose 16 percent to 209.87 billion rupees. Analysts expected net profit of 53.7 billion rupees, according to Thomson Reuters StarMine data.

(Reporting by Manoj Dharra; Editing by Jijo Jacob)