(Reuters) – Gas distributor GAIL (India) posted a bigger-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday, helped by strength in its natural gas marketing business.
India’s top natural gas distributor by market share said its net profit after tax rose 11% to 26.72 billion rupees ($317.8 million) for the September quarter. Analysts, on average, expected profit of 25.99 billion rupees, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Analysts expected GAIL to benefit from a strong increase in gas transmission and trading volumes amid overall lower domestic gas prices.
GAIL supplies about 52% of the natural gas sold in the country and primarily serves the power and fertilizer sectors.
The company’s revenue from the gas marketing segment, which focuses on the wholesale trading and distribution of natural gas and accounts for the bulk of its overall revenue, rose 3.7% to 287.47 billion rupees.
Revenue from its natural gas transmission segment, which holds a 70% market share in the country, increased 12.1% to 28.46 bln rupees.
The company’s revenue from operations rose by 3.5% to 329.31 billion rupees.
GAIL’s shares closed 0.1% higher ahead of the results and are up 21% for the year so far.
($1 = 84.0860 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Yagnoseni Das in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng)
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