India's Reliance climbs on Q2 profit jump

BENGALURU, Oct 30 (Reuters): Shares of India's most valuable company Reliance Industries rose as much as 2 per cent on Monday after it reported a bigger second-quarter profit late on Friday.

The billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led company's consolidated profit rose 27.4 per cent to 173.94 billion rupees ($2.09 billion) in the three months to Sept. 30 from a year earlier.

The company relies heavily on its mainstay oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business to make money despite its aggressive expansion into retail, telecom and green energy.

A climb in core profit was driven by a sharp increase in refining margins, Jefferies said.

Others said they expected a boost to its retail and telecoms business in the current quarter as well.

"Though the retail business will benefit from a festive quarter and the energy business will benefit from the completion of MJ field ramp-up, we expect steady growth in digital services and a modest pullback in O2C with planned maintenance," BOB Capital Markets said.

Jefferies and BOB Capital both have a "buy" rating on Reliance's stock, with "buy" also being the average rating of 32 analysts.