Sales for the half year jumped by 18 per cent to Rs 8,673 crore against Rs 7,374 crore in the same period last year.

Announcing the half-yearly results at a press conference here on Wednesday, RIL managing director Anil Ambani said that record production volumes, domestic demand growth and improved environment for the petrochemical business in the Asia-Pacific region were the key drivers for the increase in the bottomline.

While the company has recorded a net profit of Rs 510 crore in the first quarter, the second quarter net profit rose to Rs 612 crore.

Boosted by its second quarter results, which beat market expectations, the Reliance scrip on the BSE closed near its upper circuit level of Rs 255. The total volume of shares traded also went up to 1.16 crore. On the GDR market, during the mid-session on Wednesday, it was up 9.53 per cent to $14.08 compared with to its previous close.

RIL has recorded a net profit of Rs 1,031 crore under US GAAP which is 8 per cent less than the profit achieved under the Indian GAAP.

As per International Accounting Standards (IAS), the company has achieved a net profit of Rs 816 crore, which is 27 per cent less than the Indian GAAP.

While total income for the period stood at Rs 8,952 crore against Rs 7,602 crore, operating profit was at Rs 1,992 crore as compared with Rs 1,670 crore.

The total income during the first half stood at Rs 8,952 crore as compared with Rs 7,602 crore while expenditure rose to Rs 6,960 crore against Rs 5,932 crore during the same period in the last year.

Interest burden for the first six months was higher at Rs 423 crore against Rs 347 crore during the same period last year

The company's production has increased from 3.45 million tonnes to 3.91 million tonnes and inter-divisional sales has gone up to Rs 2,200 crore from Rs 1,900 crore, said an RIL press release.

"The 13 per cent growth in volumes partially reflects the ipmact of the start up of two polypropylene lines of 400,000 tonnes per annum and one paraxylene line of 465,000 tonnes per annum," said Ambani.

The company sold over 95 per cent of the production within India. Production volumes in the polyester business increased 9 per cent to 318,000 tonnes higher than the growth rates achieved by the industry, according to the press release.

During the first half, RIL has announced its intention to enter into a strategic arrangement with Raymond Synthetics to utilse its entire 74,000 per annum capacity, said the release.

The production volumes in the fibre intermediates business were up by 17 per cent to 745,000 tonnes. The polymer business has reported a 13 per cent increase in production volumes to 583,000 tonnes.

The domestic demand for polypropylene and polyethyelene witnessed strong growth rates of 24 per cent despite increase in the polymer prices.

The future outlook is positive with the demand supply balance improving and the stronger yen and the restructuring in the Japanese petrochemical industry leading to rationalisation in the supply side, said Ambani.