For the second quarter ended Sept. 30, Reliance Industries Ltd. reported improved revenue and record profit on strong performance in its refining, petrochemical and retail businesses.

On Oct. 13, the company reported revenue and profit growth of 23.9% and 31.2% for the quarter, respectively. Reported revenue was 1.012 trillion Indian rupees while earnings before interest and taxes was 120.46 billion rupees, with EPS of 13.7 rupees for the quarter.

For the first half of the year, the company reported profit before depreciation, interest and taxes of 325.89 billion rupees on 1.917 trillion rupees of revenue with EPS of 29 rupees. Revenue growth was 25.2% year over year, while PBDIT increased 20.1% over the same period.

"The results … reflect strong underlying fundamentals of our refining and petrochemicals businesses," Reliance Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani said. "Sustained demand growth coupled with supply disruptions further tightened demand-supply balances globally during the quarter."

During the second quarter, the company's core refining and marketing business saw revenue of 697.66 billion rupees with EBIT of 66.21 billion rupees. Those figures are up 15.3% and 10.8% year over year, respectively.

Citing strong year-over-year refined product demand growth in India, the company said it saw a nine-year high margin of $12 per barrel of oil it refined during the quarter despite adverse moves in crude differentials versus the prior quarter, with its facilities outperforming those of the Singapore complex.

As margins improved, the company said it increased capacity utilization at its facilities, which include the 1.24 million barrel-per-day Jamnagar refinery in Gujarat, increasing throughput to 18.1 million metric tonnes from 17.3 million metric tonnes the prior quarter.

For the first half of the year, the company reported segment revenue of 1.367 trillion rupees, up 16.8% year over year, with segment EBIT growing 12.2% to 140.97 billion rupees.

The company's petrochemical segment saw revenue climb 23.9% year over year to 534.60 billion rupees for the first half of the year, while segment EBIT jumped 44.5% to 89.91 billion rupees.

First-half oil and gas exploration and production revenue increased 6% to 28.27 billion rupees, as the segment's EBIT loss of 6.45 billion rupees was down from a loss of 8.03 billion rupees a year earlier.

The company's retail segment saw revenue and EBIT climb by 77.8% and 101.9%, respectively to 262.17 billion rupees and 6.26 billion rupees.

The performance of Reliance's media segment contrasted with the rest of the business. First-half revenue declined 11.4% year over year to 6.48 billion rupees while EBIT came in at a loss of 860 million rupees, down from a loss of 1.31 billion rupees a year earlier.