RIL slipped further following selling in the stock after a special court directed summoning of Ambani brothers in a case where the company's officials were alleged to have entered into a conspiracy to procure classified government documents.

As a result, the scrip of the diversified corporate giant declined 1.09% to Rs 266.70 on BSE by 11:35 IST on Wednesday. Volumes of over 674,000 shares were notched up on the counter on BSE by then. Reliance Industries came off its intra-day high of Rs 270 by then. RIL has now lost 3.4% from Rs 276.05 on 30 April 2003.

Dealers said there have been sustained selling in the counter for last few days from market players including institutions following its controversy over its recently-launched mobile telephone services. They said today's news has further dampened the sentiments towards the stocks.

As per market talks in last couple of day's brokerages like HSBC, CL Securities, Jardine Fleming and Kotak Securities were active seller in the RIL counter.

Analysts said players are offloading due to the temporary tariff hiccups with regulatory authority. But analysts feel that there are no concerns over the long-term. And if the telecom regulators ask RIL to revise its national long distance tariff from 40 paise per minute, it will help RIL to increase its revenues.

However the rise in tariff may see subscription falling. Already the company has grabbed more than a million subscribers in 10 week following its lower tariff rates.

Meanwhile the company's fourth quarter performance was also not up to the expected mark. For the fourth quarter ended 31 March 2003, RIL recorded a 32% rise in net profit to Rs 1,101 crore (Rs 11.01 billion) on a 29% increase in net sales to Rs 13,962 crore (Rs 13.96 billion).

Analysts say, though a first look at the results may prove cheering, the fact that operating margins are down by around 4% to 14.5% is disheartening. In fact, were it not for the change in tax liability -deferred tax write back of Rs 15 crore against a tax liability of Rs 280 crore (Rs 2.8 billion) last year - net profit growth would have been much lower. A noteworthy point is that margins are under pressure at a time when petrochemical product prices are looking up!

For the full year, the company recorded a 27% increase in net profit to Rs 4,104 crore (Rs 41.04 billion) on a 10% rise in net sales to Rs 50,096 crore (Rs 500.96 billion).

RIL is basically a petrochemicals maker (the largest in the country) and a petroleum refiner (after it merged group company Reliance Petroleum with itself). The company has emerged as one among the largest private sector players in the oil exploration segment as well.

The promoters hold 44% equity stake in RIL, while the public, domestic and foreign institutions hold 15%, 13% and 26% respectively.

BSE code: 500325