State owned gas transporter GAIL India’s net profit rose 50 per cent to Rs 1,963 crore in the second quarter of the fiscal on the back of higher revenue from the natural gas marketing business.

The company had reported a net profit of Rs 1,310 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal.

“The gas marketing and LHC (liquid hydrocarbon) segments performed better than the last quarter because of better margin. Petrochemical has shown marked improvement in terms of physical volume growth though margin was under pressure because of the increase in input costs primarily because of the increase in crude prices and the adverse exchange rate,” B. C. Tripathi, chairman and managing director of GAIL, said.

The revenue rose 11.4 per cent quarter-on-quarter to Rs 19,275 crore. The earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 29 per cent over the previous quarter to Rs 2,928 crore, while the operating margin expanded 160 basis points to 15.2 per cent.

Revenue from the petrochemical business rose 9.8 per cent sequentially to Rs 1,772.18 crore. In the transmission services business, the natural gas revenue rose 16.72 per cent to Rs 1,530.8 crore, while LPG earnings rose 8 per cent to Rs 152.38 crore.

The natural gas marketing business was aided by higher LNG volume and price. Transmission EBIT margin expanded to 57 per cent from 53 per cent in the preceding quarter. Natural gas marketing EBIT margin expanded to 6.7 per cent from 3.9 per cent.