Reliance Industries shares soar 3.4 pct, hit 9 year high

The share price of Reliance Industries (RIL) rose 3.4% on Friday to hit a nine-year high. The company’s market capitalisation on Friday is Rs 4.84lakh crore. The petrochemicals giant recently forayed into the mobile telephony space via RJio and has managed to garner more than 70 million subscribers. A total of 88.71 lakh shares were traded in the counters of BSE and NSE, 1.97 times more than its three-month daily average of 44.95 lakh shares. The company is understood to be gearing up to launch a 4G VoLTE feature phone at a very attractive price. Market participants said the 4G VoLTE feature phone could be launched as early as this month and could further disrupt in the telecom market. The launch of RJio has resulted in a tariff war.

In February 2017, the RIL stock crossed the Rs 4 lakh crore-mark in terms of market capitalisation for the first time since May 2008. Reliance’s shares have been on the rise after its telecom arm Jio announced that it will charge its customers in February and revenue growth in its core business. The stock has risen 38.8% from February 21 – the day its telecom arm Jio announced that it will charge its users from April 2017. Last April, the company reported an 11.5% (y-o-y) jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 8,053 crore.

A Prabhakar, head of research at IDBI Capital Reliance, said Reliance is in a sweet spot. “Whatever capex they have to do is over and now it is time to generate revenue,” he said. According to Bloomberg consensus estimates, RIL is trading at a one year forward price to earnings (P/E) of 16.4.

Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)