General Electric (GE) has reported a nine per cent rise in quarterly industrial profit as its businesses that sell power-generating turbines and jet engines helped offset weak sales in its oil and gas unit.

Investors have been concerned that plunging oil prices will hurt GE's sales of oil equipment if customers slash spending. Orders in the unit also fell.

'It's going to be an albatross ... as long as energy prices stay low,' said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Asset Management.

'The sentiment on GE is very negative here, and I don't see anything in the quarter that is going to change that.'

GE chief executive Jeff Immelt said the US conglomerate, which is shifting its focus even more to industrial operations and away from finance, recognised the risks from low oil prices. But he pointed to other areas of strength, including the improving US economy.

'The GE world remains balanced,' Immelt said. 'Our job is to manage the company through volatility.'

Fourth-quarter net income rose 61 per cent to $5.15 billion, or 51 cents per share, from a year earlier, when results suffered from GE's move to resolve financial obligations to Japan's Shinsei Bank.

Excluding pension-related costs, earnings of 56 cents per share were one cent ahead of the analysts' average estimate, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Revenue rose 4 per cent to $42 billion, just missing Wall Street estimates of $42.16 billion.

GE's organic industrial revenue, which excludes the impact of foreign exchange fluctuations and deals, increased nine per cent. Sales in the power and water unit, which sells a variety of turbines and is GE's biggest industrial segment, rose 22 per cent, while the aviation division's sales increased four per cent.

Revenue at the oil and gas division slumped six per cent but was flat on an organic basis. Orders at the unit, which sells oil and gas equipment and services, fell four per cent on an organic basis, but its quarterly profit edged up one per cent.

GE's profit margin for the industrial businesses, which Wall Street watches closely, rose by 0.5 percentage points to 18.8 per cent. The company is cutting costs and simplifying operations to lift margins.-Reuters