Bloomberg/Mumbai

Reliance Industries, operator of the world’s biggest oil refinery complex, reported its highest quarterly profit in more than two years as a decline in the value of the rupee boosted export earnings.

Net income in the quarter to March 31 for the company controlled by billionaire Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest, matched analyst estimates as refinery margins recovered from the previous three months, and it starts projects that will add to revenue. Higher profit is making analysts the most bullish on the company’s stock in more than two years, while its shares have increased to the highest since May 2011.

Profit increased to Rs56.3bn ($933mn), or Rs17.4 a share, in the quarter from Rs55.9bn, or Rs17.3, a year earlier, the Mumbai-based company said in a stock exchange filing yesterday. Sales rose 13% to Rs951.9bn, missing the median estimate of Rs1tn of 24 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

The company’s stock, which has gained 20% since February 28, compared with a 15% increase in the 10-member S&P BSE Oil Index, rose 1.9% to 959.10 rupees on Thursday. The markets are closed yesterday for a public holiday.

The company operates two refineries with a combined capacity of 1.24mn barrels a day located next to each other at Jamnagar in the western state of Gujarat. They have the ability to process cheaper, lower grades of crude into high- value products for use in Europe and the US.

A majority of the fuels and chemicals Reliance makes are exported and paid for in dollars. A lower value of the rupee against the greenback increases export earnings when converted to the local currency.

The rupee averaged 61.80 per dollar in the quarter ended March 31, compared with 54.20 a year earlier. The currency has gained 2.5% this year, touching an eight-month high on March 28.

Reliance earned $9.3 for every barrel of crude it turned to fuels in the quarter, compared with $10.1 a barrel a year earlier and $7.60 a barrel in the preceding three months, the company said.

Reliance is building a plant that will turn petroleum coke, a byproduct from the refinery, to gas that will be used to produce power for its factories. Once operational, this will widen refining margin by as much as $2 a barrel.

The price difference between light grades of crude and heavier varieties widened to an average $5.10 per barrel in the quarter from $4.50 a year earlier, Nisha Sharma, a Mumbai-based analyst with KR Choksey Shares & Securities, wrote in an April 9 report.