Cairn India, a private sector oil and gas explorer, swung to a loss for the quarter ended Mar. 31, 2015, due to steep fall in oil prices and exceptional item. The company has made a net loss of Rs 2.41 billion, or Rs 1.28 a share in the quarter, against a net profit of Rs 30.35 million, or Rs 0.15.85 a share in the last year period.

On the other hand, profit excluding exceptional items for the quarter was Rs 1.93 billion as rupee appreciation led to a forex loss of Rs 1.68 billion.

Exceptional item pertained to impairment loss of Sri Lanka amounting to Rs 5.05 billion leading to a negative profit after tax for the quarter, the company said.

Revenue during the quarter declined 47 percent to Rs 26.77 million from Rs 50.49 million in the previous year period. "Revenue reported the quarter, post profit sharing with the Government of India and the royalty expense in the Rajasthan block, was INR 2,677 crore down 24% QoQ on account of lower crude prices and lower volumes by 3%," the company said.

EBITDA for the quarter fell 80 percent to Rs 7.27 billion, compared with Rs 36.54 billion in the previous year period. As a result, margin has contracted during the quarter to 27% from 72% for the same period last year.

Mayank Ashar, managing director and CEO of Cairn India commented, "Restructuring the organization to align with an SBU structure in the early part of the year geared up the organization to capture value along each line of business. This helped us to respond to the current oil price slump better than most of our global peers. Our strong functional excellence, coupled with the restructuring, enabled us to focus on the core MBA fields and provided us the operational flexibility to reduce operating as well as capital cost and curtail projects to ensure shareholder value accretion. Detailed work is ongoing to allow us to respond faster to a V-shaped recovery in oil prices. Despite record low oil prices and substantial cut in capex, we will at a minimum maintain Rajasthan production."

Shares of the company declined Rs 4.85, or 2.22%, to settle at Rs 213.60. The total volume of shares traded was 851,619 at the BSE (Thursday).