The net profit of Bharti Airtel, the biggest telecom operator in India in terms of market share, dropped by 7.8% in the second quarter of FY 2009-2010 to Rs 2,321 crore from Rs 2,517 crore, on a quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) basis.

During the period, the total revenues declined by 0.97% to Rs 9,845 crore – down from Rs 9,941.6 crore.

Both the revenues and profits of Bharti Airtel in Q2 2009 were below expectations. A poll conducted by CNBC-TV18 had shown that the company’s net profits would be Rs 2,401.2 crore and total revenues would amount to 10,218.4 crore.

Bharti Airtel, based in New Delhi, said in a statement that while its EBIDTA (earning before interest, depreciation, tax and amortisation) margin was 42.1%, the deferred tax writeback stood at Rs 221.2 crore. 

The ARPU (average revenue per user) went down to Rs 252 from Rs 278, and the minutes of usage fell to 450 from 478 quarter-on-quarter.

Sunil Mittal, CMD of Bharti Airtel, however, said in a statement that the company continues to maintain its market leadership position in the mobile segment in spite of the mounting competition. Bharti Airtel’s budding DTH business is emerging to be leader in the field in many states of the country thanks to high the quality of product and service, Mittal added.

Bharti Airtel said that 12 milion-13 million customers were being added each month and that it will pursue “all available growth opportunities” and work towards creating new streams of revenue.

The company said it had 113.4 million customers as on September 30, 2009.

Bharti Airtel had, in September 2009, an ambitious plan to merge with MTN, the leading wireless service provider of South Africa.

It may be noted that NTT DoCoMo, based in Tokyo, and the biggest wireless operator in Japan, is attracting customers with pay-per-second calls. Reliance is now offering plans with call rates of 1 US cent per minute. 

According to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Vodafone’s share of wireless users in India rose to 17.7% at the end of August 2009 from 17.3% a year before, while Bharti Airtel’s share of wireless users declined to 23.6% from 24.5% in the same period.

Reliance performed well, with its market share rising from 17.8% to 18.4% in 12 months.

Net income in the second quarter rose to Rs 5,090 crore, or 23.8 rupees a share (EPS), Rs from 4,808 crore, or 22.48 rupees apiece, the New Delhi-based ONGC said in a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange yesterday. Sales declined to Rs 15,080 crore from Rs 17,407 crore a year earlier.

ONGC  said profit also rose after the government allowed ONGC to cut discounts given to state-owned refiners such as Indian Oil Corp (IOC)., reducing the explorers subsidy burden. ONGC sold crude at $56.42 a barrel in the quarter after giving discounts, 21 percent higher than last year. Discounts to state refiners fell 80 percent to Rs 2,630 crore in the quarter from Rs 12,663 crore.

ONGC has to sell crude oil at a discount to the state refiners to help them compensate for losses from selling petrol and diesel below cost. ONGC was exempted from bearing losses from sale of kerosene and liquefied petroleum gas.

The company’s total expenses during the second quarter of 2009 fell to Rs 8,713 crore from Rs 11,177 crore. Interest payment dropped to Rs 3.54 crore from Rs 97.4 crore in the year-ago quarter.

The explorer plans to spend Rs 24,720 crore in the year ending March 2010, ONGC said in a statement posted on its web site. ONGC said it has made five oil and gas discoveries in the quarter ended September and another four this month.

ONGC said it plans to add 72.65 million tons of ultimate oil and gas reserves in the year ending March 2009 and 76.17 million tons in the subsequent year against actual of 68.90 million tons in 2008-09.

Reliance Industries Limited, India’s biggest company by market value, said its 2009-2010 fiscal second quarter profit fell 6.4 percent to 3,852 crore rupees on lower refining earnings. This is the fourth straight decline in quarterly profit reported by the company as a global recession weakened fuel demand.

Mumbai-based Reliance said its net profit in the three months ended September 30 fell to 3,852 crore from 4,116 crore rupees a year ago, its fourth straight decline in quarterly profit. Sales rose to 46,848 crore from 44,688 crore rupees last year, Reliance said in a statement posted on its web site.

Reliance Industries, which operates the world’s largest refining complex, reported a 51 percent drop in the revenue it earns from processing each barrel of crude as oil prices fell from last year’s record highs. The company owned is Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, is investing in exploration to cut depended on refining.

The company started producing gas from KG D6, its biggest discovery off India’s eastern coast, in April. Reliance said it produced 40 million standard cubic metres of gas from the find in the six months to September.

The refiner earned $6 on every barrel of crude turned into fuels in the September quarter compared with $13.4 a barrel a year ago. Global refining margins have fallen to $3.42 a barrel in the quarter compared with $6.20 last year, according to BP Plc data.

Earnings from Reliance’s petrochemicals business rose 16 percent in the quarter on higher demand and help from a fall in the rupee, the company said.

Reliance said it earned $7.5 billion in the six months to September from exports of fuels from its refinery located at Jamnagar in Gujarat. It exported for about 13.2 million tonnes of fuels compared with 11 million tonnes last year, the company said.

The company’s outstanding debt as on September 30, 2009 was 71,349 crore rupees against 73,904 crore on March 31, 2009, Reliance said. The company, which has the highest weightage on the Bombay Stock Exchange’s 30-share Sensitive Index Sensex, offered stockholders a bonus of one share for each equity share owned in Reliance earlier this month.

Reliance Industries fell over 1 percent on Friday morning trading, a day after it posted it released its quarterly reports for Q2 2009.