ONGC Q2 profit slips 32%, misses forecast

State-run producer Oil & Natural Gas reported a 32 percent fall in quarterly profit, just missing expectations, as lower average crude oil prices and a higher subsidy burden weighed on profits.

The company reported a net profit of Rs 5,897 crore for its fiscal second quarter ended September, down from Rs 8,642 crore a year earlier.

Analysts, on an average, had expected a net profit of Rs 6,090 crore, according to a Reuters poll of brokerages.

Net sales fell 13 percent to Rs 19,788 crore.

Shares of ONGC, India's third-biggest company with a market value of $41.9 billion, closed 0.6 percent lower on Thursday, ahead of the results. The stock has risen 3.5 percent so far in 2012, nearly matching a 4.3 percent rise in the BSE oil and gas index.

Copyright @ Thomson Reuters 2012