LIC, corporate bodies support RIL stock

The Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) and undisclosed corporate bodies came to the rescue of Reliance Industries’ stock at a time when it has been on a crash course.

The RIL stock fell 14 per cent to Rs 897 from Rs 1,047 in the April-June period. The Sensex was down 3 per cent during the same period. The company scrip has over a 10 per cent weigtage in the index.

The fall could have been steeper but for the faith shown by LIC and corporate bodies whose names are not disclosed as they fall in the non-institutional and non-promoter category.

According to the shareholding pattern filed by RIL, between April and June, foreign institutional investors (FIIs) sold shares worth Rs 800 to Rs 1,000 crore as they off-loaded 10.05 million shares. Also on a selling spree were domestic mutual funds (MFs) and retail investors. While MFs sold two million shares, retail investors offloaded a million shares. Other financial institutions and banks sold 0.3 million shares in the past three months.

Corporate bodies were the largest buyers of RIL shares. About 10.1 million shares or 70 per cent of the selling pressure was absorbed by these unknown firms. Till March 13, as many as 193 of these corporate bodies accounted for 4.53 per cent stake in RIL, now 4.87 per cent held by 13,350 companies. LIC’s holding in RIL increased by 1.86 million shares in the past three months.

LIC’s stake in RIL has reached 7.16 per cent and the insurer holds investment worth Rs 20,500 crore in the company. Franklin Templeton Investment Fund is the only large FII supporting the RIL stock.