RIL slips as Kejriwal calls for investigation into gas price rise

Reliance Industries fell 1.59% to Rs 808.50 at 13:29 IST on BSE after Delhi's Chief Minister called for an investigation into what he alleged was collusion between government policymakers and Reliance in a plan to raise natural gas prices this year.

Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 42.18 points, or 0.21%, to 20,376.46

On BSE, so far 1.44 lakh shares were traded in the counter, compared with an average volume of 2.63 lakh shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 824.25 and a low of Rs 806.50 so far during the day. The stock hit a 52-week high of Rs 927.90 on 19 July 2013. The stock hit a 52-week low of Rs 765 on 28 March 2013.

 

The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 10 February 2014, falling 4.12% compared with the Sensex's 2.04% fall. The scrip had also underperformed the market in past one quarter, declining 6.16% as against Sensex's 1.61% fall.

The large-cap company has an equity capital of Rs 3231.67 crore. Face value per share is Rs 10.

"Today we have instructed the anti-corruption branch to file a criminal case against Murli Deora, FIRs against Veerappa Moily, V.K. Sibal, the (then) director general of hydrocarbons, RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani and others," Delhis Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal told a press conference. RIL had initially agreed to supply gas to utility NTPC at about $2.3 per million British thermal units (mBtu) for about 17 years, Kejriwal said. But price of gas from the D6 block was fixed at $4.2 per mBtu when Deora was oil minister. Last year, after Moily took over as oil minister, the central government agreed to link prices with global indexes, which could double the local gas prices from 1 April 2014. Kejriwal said he would ask the central government to suspend the latest order on gas pricing pending an inquiry.

RIL's net profit rose 0.2% to Rs 5511 crore on 10.3% growth in net sales to Rs 103521 crore in Q3 December 2013 over Q3 December 2012. The result was announced after market hours on 17 January 2014.

RIL's gross refining margin (GRM) declined to $7.6 per barrel from $7.7 per barrel in Q2 September 2013 and $9.6 per barrel in Q3 December 2012.

RIL's activities span exploration and production of oil and gas, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals (polyester, fibre intermediates, plastics and chemicals), textiles, retail and broadband services.

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