Reliance Industries reclaims Rs 10 lakh crore m-cap intraday

Reliance Industries, owner of the country’s largest telecom operator Jio by subscriber base, has reclaimed Rs 10 lakh crore mark in market capitalisation intraday on May 11, but it closed slightly below that mark. Last it hit the level was on January 17, 2020.

The stock gained 0.96 percent to close at  Rs 1,576.75, with  a market cap of Rs 9,99,565.43 crore, after hitting an intraday high of Rs 1,614.85, taking total gains to 78 percent from closing lows of March, outperforming equity benchmark indices which gained around 21 percent from March lows.

The index is 2.6 percent away from its record high of Rs 1,617.80 seen on December 20 last year.

After the company announced its deleveraging plan in the AGM last year, the stock had picked up momentum and hit a record high in December.

However, it also fell sharply along with market turmoil in February-March due to COVID-19 crisis, but rebounded quite sharply than any other largecaps in April-May following strong growth in Reliance Jio and stake sale in Jio Platforms, the 100 percent subsidiary of RIL.

Reliance announced three back to back deals with private equity investors (Vista and Silver Lake) and Whatsapp’s owner Facebook Inc, and garnered Rs 60,596.37 crore by selling 13.47 percent stake in Jio Platforms in less than three weeks.

“In the midst of all the chaos, Reliance Industries seems to have created its own bull market territory through a V-Shaped recovery by concerted efforts to bring quality investors, reduce its net debt and streamline its balance sheet,” Jimeet Modi, Founder & CEO at SAMCO Securities & StockNote told Moneycontrol.

RIL having the highest weight in Nifty50 is also keeping markets on a better footing which in a way is helping to neutralize negative sentiments and is good for the current pandemic-stricken economy, he said.

As a part of debt reduction, Reliance on April 30th also announced India’s biggest rights issue of Rs 53,125 crore, with a ratio of 1:15 and a price of Rs 1,257 per share.

With strong visibility to these equity infusions, RIL is set to achieve net-zero debt status ahead of its own aggressive timeline (March 2021), Reliance said.

And in spite of the COVID-19 crisis and the lockdowns, the due-diligence by Saudi Aramco for the planned investment in the O2C business is on track as both the parties are committed and actively engaged, it added.

―Money Control