May 20 (Reuters) - Grasim Industries' fourth-quarter loss narrowed as a sharp improvement in operating performance and a lower exceptional hit offset continued investments in its new paints and e-commerce businesses.

Here are the details:- 

o The Aditya Birla Group firm reported a standalone net loss of 1.64 billion Indian rupees ($16.94 million) for the quarter ended March 31, compared with a loss of 2.88 billion rupees a year earlier.

o Standalone EBITDA rises 47% to 6.59 billion rupees, driven by improved performance in cellulosic fibres along with recovery in textiles.

o Revenue from operations rose to 117.74 billion rupees from 89.26 billion rupees a year earlier

o At the group level, growth was led by the building materials business - primarily UltraTech Cement - and financial services, which drove overall earnings expansion and offset weaker profitability in investment-heavy standalone businesses.

o Still, profitability continued to be weighed down by ongoing investments in new consumer-facing ventures such as paints brand Birla Opus and B2B platform Birla Pivot.

o Birla Opus gained market share, strengthening its position with an estimated 90 basis-point sequential increase in the March quarter, while Birla Pivot saw revenue more than double year-on-year.

o The building materials segment - including UltraTech Cement, paints and B2B e-commerce - delivered the strongest growth at the group level, with quarterly revenue up 19% and EBITDA rising 22% on improved cement profitability.

($1 = 96.8050 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Pranav Kashyap in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee)