Mumbai, July 17 -- Reliance Industries Ltd delivered a better-than-expected start to FY27 as a resilient oil refining and petrochemicals business weathered severe disruption in global energy markets triggered by the US-Iran conflict, more than offsetting weakness in its retail arm.

The earnings beat came despite expectations that geopolitical tensions and volatile energy markets would weigh on Reliance's flagship oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business, which contributes more than half of the company's consolidated revenue.

India's most valuable company reported a consolidated profit of Rs.20,946 crore attributable to owners in the first quarter, ahead of a consensus estimate of Rs.19,823 crore of analysts polled by Bloomberg. This was a 12% in...