NEW DELHI: Reliance Industries Limited’s (RIL) share prices have fallen by nearly 5 per cent in the last two sessions, despite Mukesh Ambani’s announcement of a Rs 75,000-crore investment in ambitious green energy plans and the Group’s planned, aggressive foray into the smartphoane market in the next few months.
As of the end of Thursday’s session, RIL shares were down 2.61 per cent at Rs 2,147.80 on the National Stock Exchange (NSE), while on Friday it slumped 2.28 per cent to close at Rs 2,104.50. In contrast, the benchmark Nifty50 and Sensex indices registered a gain on these two dates.
This fall also belies the expectation that RIL stock may witness a surge post the much-hyped Annual General Meeting (AGM) held on Thursday. A senior analyst said that that shareholders have been left bit disappointed since they were expecting Ambani to announce the completion date for the $15-billion deal in the works with Saudi Aramco.
RIL had announced the sale of a 20 per cent stake in its oil-to-chemicals business in 2019 to Aramco. However, the deal is yet to be finalized after oil prices and demand crashed last year. The analyst added that many investors had thought that it was the right time to book profits, since RIL share prices have surged nearly 17 per cent over the last six weeks.
JP Morgan said that as expected, the smartphone and induction of ARAMCO’s chairman into RIL’s board was announced. “However, there was no O2C (oil to chemical) completion, no timeline on Whatsapp-JioMart, no timeline on IPOs of Jio/Retail (though chairman highlighted that payouts would increase),” it said, “Operationally, refining remains weak, while Petchem is robust (though down from March peak). Telecom tariff increase and GRM recovery remain the company’s key earnings drivers”.
Edelweiss noted that the move to retail and new energy is believed to be ESG positive move, but the market may have reservations. However, others say that other factors could have influenced the fall. “Capex overshoot risks remain but... it should help improve focus on RIL by ESG investors,” said Bofa Securities in a note.