Markets have turned range bound and are hovering near the flat line amid thin volumes.

By 11:35 am, the S&P BSE Sensex was trading lower by 6 points at 26,075 and Nifty50 was flat at 7,929.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) chairman Mukesh Ambani on Sunday announced the company’s re-entry into the telecom business by unveiling a fourth generation (4G) service for its employees.

Ambani didn’t disclose when commercial operations will begin.

Benchmark share indices were trading near their day's high in late morning deals after stabilising global crude prices led to buying interest in oil and gas shares.

At 11:35am, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 261 points at 25,852 after hitting an intra-day high of 25,863 and the NIfty50 was up 76 points at 7,862 after touching an intra-day high of 7,865.

Reliance Industries (RIL) is drawing the attention of the street with the impending launch of its much awaited 4G service. With RIL having invested heavily in its telecom venture Reliance Jio, its success and return on investments will be crucial. The venture has drawn investor concern and analysts criticism of Reliance’s investments in the sector, based on long break-even and lower returns on heavy investments. Thus, while the launch and success will be watched for keenly, investor expectations are low, and success of the venture can boost Street sentiment.

The government has set up a judicial commission headed by former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court Ajit Prakash Shah to look into the findings of the international consultant DeGolyer & MacNaughton in the gas dispute between Reliance Industries (RIL) and state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC).

The consultant had said 11 billion cubic meter (bcm) of gas may have flown from ONGC’s Godavari PML and KG-D5 blocks to RIL’s KG-D6 block in the Krishna Godavari basin off the Andhra coast.

Markets have turned range bound in noon trades led by gains in index heavyweights such as Reliance Industries and HDFC. However, profit taking in select pharma and auto shares capped upside gains.

At 1:50 pm, the 30-share Sensex was up 212 points at 25,250 and the 50-share Nifty was up about 60 points at 7,671.

Reliance Industries (RIL), the country's largest private sector company, has moved Rs 10,000-15,000 crore in the past few days from duration schemes to liquid schemes of mutual funds. Duration schemes are medium-term mutual fund schemes that provide good returns in a falling interest rate regime. Liquid schemes, on the other hand, are almost cash equivalent.

"Reliance Industries, the biggest investor in the mutual fund industry, has been aggressively shifting money from medium-term debt funds to near-cash liquid schemes in the past few days," said the chief executive of a fund house.

Two private equity firms and a strategic partner are in the race to buy the Jaypee Group's cement business at an enterprise valuation of close to Rs 19,500 crore.

The sale is expected to be concluded by next March, according to a source. ICICI Securities, which is managing the sale, has asked the three bidders to give their offers. The proceeds will be used by Jaiprakash Associates to retire a part of its Rs 61,285 crore debt held in 2014-15, down from Rs 72,599 crore in 2013-14 (see chart).

The board of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), led by its vocal independent directors and government nominee, had forced the firm’s management to take legal recourse that has now led to a damning finding that Rs 11,000 crore worth of its natural gas had flowed to neighbouring block of Reliance Industries (RIL).

It all started in July 2013 when a review of the firm’s eastern offshore oil and gas campaign by the just-appointed director (exploration), Narendra Kumar Verma, led to suspicion that ONGC’s Krishna Godavari basin block KG-DWN-98/2 and Godavari-PML are connected with adjoining KG-D6 block of RIL.

There is a shadow on future production from the five discoveries of the government-controlled Oil and Natural Gas Corporation, after gas reportedly flowed from two of its blocks to the adjacent Reliance Industries units off the Andhra Pradesh coast.

Dallas-based DeGoyler and MacNaughton (D&M), in a report submitted to the government on Tuesday, has put a question mark on the future production from the five ONGC discoveries. It has established continuity of the reservoir in three blocks of Reliance Industries and ONGC.

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