RIL beset by institutional selling

Reliance Industries slipped 2.19% to Rs 289.80 in pre-noon trades on Wednesday, and volumes seemed substantial at 1.39 million shares.

In two sessions, the scrip of Reliance Industries has shed 3.43% from Rs 300.10 on 7 April 2003. In the earlier five sessions between 31 and 7 April 2003, the stock had, in contrast, risen 9% from Rs 275.15 on 31 March 2003.

As per market buzz, a leading domestic brokerage is believed to have offloaded around 1.5 million shares today on behalf of its institutional clients. However, marketmen could not pinpoint any single reason for this selling.

The scrip's earlier solid run was the result of a series of events including reports that Life Insurance Corporation of India had increased its holding in the company to close to 5%. The institution was reported to have bought nearly 2.5 million shares held by the scam custodian belonging to the Harshad Mehta group.

Buying also manifested on expectations that RIL would benefit further from the gas find in the Krishna Godavari basin. Recently, there were reports that RIL had found additional gas reserves in the Bay of Bengal. The gas reserves in the newly-discovered block are estimated at nine trillion cubic feet.

In late October 2002, RIL said that its Krishna-Godavari basin (Andhra Pradesh) gas project would go on stream around mid-2004. The cost of development of the project could total $1.3 billion, it added.

Analysts feel that the buying support was also on hopes of a good FY 2002-03 result by the company. RIL will announce its results on 23 April 2003.

Meanwhile, RIL is also making aggressive moves in the telecom business. The market has been abuzz with rumours that RIL's 45% subsidiary Reliance Infocomm has garnered huge response from customers (1 million) for its wireless-in-local loop mobile services. Reliance Infocomm is expected to roll out basic telephony services in 17 states soon. It has already laid 40,000 kilometres of optic fibre across the country to cover various facets of telecom services including basic, Internet and long distance telephony. The company is expected to provide cheaper services, banking on a lower margin-high volume game. RIL has reportedly invested a huge sum in Reliance Infocomm - of over Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion).

RIL is basically a petrochemicals maker (the largest in the country) and a petroleum refiner (after it merged group company Reliance Petroleum with itself). The company has emerged as one among the largest private sector players in the oil exploration segment as well.

RIL registered impressive results for the third quarter ended 31 December 2002. It posted a 24% rise in net profit to Rs 1,083 crore (Rs 10.83 billion), compared to Rs 873 crore (Rs 8.73 billion) in the corresponding period of the previous year. Total income increased by 7.58% to Rs 11,243 crore (Rs 112.43 billion) from Rs 10,450 crore (Rs 104.5 billion) in DQ 2001. The figures for the corresponding previous period have been restated to include the effect of the amalgamation of Reliance Petroleum with RIL with effect from 1 April 2001.

The promoters hold 43.7% equity stake in RIL, while the public, domestic and foreign institutions hold 15.3%, 13% and 26.4% respectively.

BSE code: 500325