Rs 50,000 Crore Wealth Eroded: Reliance Shares Near 3-Months Low, Sheds 3% On Huge Block Deal

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-backed flagship firm, Reliance Industries (RIL) nosedived by more than 3% on Wednesday on a huge block deal of approximately Rs 5,000 crore. The stock slipped to near its 3-month low levels. Currently, heavyweight RIL is among the top losers on exchanges, and contributing to dragging the broader markets.

In a few minutes of the opening bell, RIL witnessed a massive exchange of shares to about 0.3% or 2 crore equity shares amounting to nearly Rs 5,000 crore.

On BSE, the charts showed that at around 9.27 a.m., RIL recorded a block deal of 1,646,187 shares at Rs 2,375.05 per share. More shares in bulk exchanged hands between 9.27 a.m. to 10 a.m.

The names of the buyers and sellers were unknown at the moment.

But the largest company in terms of market share, RIL's stock price toppled by 3.05% to hit an intraday low of Rs 2,361.60 apiece on BSE. At the intraday low, RIL's market cap stood at around Rs 15,97,838 crore, down by nearly Rs 50,267 crore compared to the market cap of Rs 16,48,105 crore as of September 18.

On NSE, the stock is down by 3.3% with an intraday low of Rs 2,355 apiece.

The last time when RIL shares were around Rs 2,350-2,360 levels was on June 30, 2023.

At the time of writing, RIL's share price traded at Rs 2,392.80 apiece, plummeting by 1.8%. Its market cap stood at Rs 16,18,878.20 crore. On NSE, the stock also trades lower by 1.8%. From the latest market cap, about Rs 29227.49 crore of wealth has been eroded

The performance also comes with the company's launch of Jio AirFiber in eight cities namely -- Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune on September 19.

JioAirFiber, Akash Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Jio
Infocomm said, "With JioAirFiber, we are expanding our addressable market to rapidly cover every home in
our country with similar quality of service. JioAirFiber will enable millions of homes with world-class digital entertainment, smart home services and broadband, through its solutions across education, health, surveillance and smart home."

Among many features, JioAirFiber will overcome the challenges of last-mile connectivity connect
every home and small business and transform India into a Premier Digital Society. Also, JioAirFiber provides an opportunity for TV or broadband users to upgrade to a world-class home entertainment, broadband and digital experience, delivered through one integrated service.

Apart from this, Reliance shares are also in focus due to reports stating that the price of natural gas produced from difficult areas like KG-D6 is likely to be trimmed by 14% starting October month.

PTI reported that sources told for the six-month period starting October 1, the price of gas from deep sea and high-pressure, high-temperature areas is likely to be cut to around $10.4 per million British thermal units from the current $12.12. Accordingly, they stated that the price of natural gas produced from difficult areas like KG-D6 of RIL is likely to be cut by about 14% from next month in line with softening energy prices.

In other news, the Walt Disney Co. is believed to have held talks with RIL which also owns a majority stake in Viacom18, at a time when the American media conglomerate is looking at various strategic options for its India business, people aware of the development told ET.

Notably, on Monday, Bloomberg reported that Disney has held preliminary talks with potential buyers for its India business, including RIL.

RIL is yet to clarify the Walt Disney deal.

As per Trendlyne data, RIL's RSI and MFI are in mid-range at 42.3 and 53.3 respectively. However, its 1-year beta is at 1.9%, indicating high volatility in the stock price. RIL has witnessed 8 target downgrades in 6 months, alongside 1 analyst upgrade. Nevertheless, the average broker target is at Rs 2,834.6 for RIL shares, with a potential upside of over 18%.