Jio Financial Services, a unit of Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries (RIL), got valued at Rs 1.66 trillion ($20 billion) following an hour-long special trading session conducted by stock exchanges on Thursday. Shares of RIL's unit got priced at Rs 261.85 apiece - higher than analysts' expectations of Rs 134-224 per share. The price was arrived at after calculating the difference between RIL's Wednesday (July 19) close of Rs 2,840 and Rs 2,580, the price discovered during the first-of-its-kind pre-trade session.
American refiners closed some of their production, leading to futures trade benchmarked to the West Texas Intermediate going negative.
Moody's said together, proceeds from these transactions will result in a $ 16 billion reduction in RIL's net debt.
Reliance announced energy asset sales worth around $ 16 billion; end of the investment cycle in telecom; bringing net-debt to zero in 18 months; value-unlocking options for real estate and financial assets; listing of telecom and retail in five years; and focus on dividends.
M&M was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, rallying around 7 per cent, followed by Bajaj Finance, Hero MotoCorp, RIL, Titan and Bajaj Auto. On the other hand, ONGC, Tech Mahindra, PowerGrid, Infosys and Kotak Bank were among the laggards.
Over the past few months, RIL and TCS are competing with each other to claim the number one position in terms of market capitalisation.
JSW Steel was the biggest gainer on the Sensex chart, rising 2.68 per cent, followed by Tata Motors, Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Steel, Titan, ITC, Tech Mahindra, NTPC, Reliance Industries and Larsen & Toubro. In contrast, Bajaj Finance, Maruti, ICICI Bank, Power Grid, Asian Paints and Axis Bank were major laggards.
Reliance Industries chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday announced an additional Rs 20,000-crore investment for West Bengal over the next three years. Ambani said the fresh investment will be in the areas of digital life solutions, retail and bio-energy.
Despite a massive underperformance at the bourses since the last six months, analysts are turning optimistic on Reliance Industries (RIL). Those at Jefferies, for instance, say that the company is a proxy play for India's consumption growth story. The key catalysts for the stock, according to a Jeffries note, include faster-than-expected market share gain in retail, oil-to-chemicals (O2C) stake sale, recovery in gross refining margins (GRM), potential public listing of Jio and even a possible banking licence going ahead. That apart, analysts feel any tariff hike in Reliance Jio (RJio) - its telecom venture - will also aid performance. With balance sheet adequately de-levered, proceeds from a strategic stake sale in the O2C business will create a sizeable war chest for the company, analysts say.
Sun Pharma, Hindustan Unilever, HCL Technologies, Wipro, Tech Mahindra, UltraTech Cement, Tata Steel and Titan were among the other major gainers. Bharti Airtel, Power Grid and NTPC were the laggards.
BSE benchmark Sensex plummeted over 388 points to close at 58,576.37 on Tuesday, tracking weakness in index majors Wipro, RIL and Bharti Airtel amid a weak trend in global markets. Investors also remained cautious ahead of crucial macroeconomic data announcements -- industrial production for February and inflation rate for March -- post trading hours. The Sensex declined 388.20 points or 0.66 per cent to settle at 58,576.37. During the day, the benchmark tanked 666 points or 1.12 per cent to 58,298.57.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Tuesday became the first listed company to hit the Rs 20 lakh crore market valuation mark. The market heavyweight's stock jumped 1.88 per cent to its record high of Rs 2,957.80 apiece on the BSE. It finally settled at Rs 2,928.95 per piece, up 0.90 per cent on the bourse.
Proxy advisory firm IiAS has recommended that institutional investors should vote against Anant Ambani's appointment on the Reliance Industries board, citing his age as the reason. Is that why Anant and his dad, RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani, worshipped at the Dwarkadhish temple in Devbhumi Dwarka district, Gujarat, on Tuesday?
According to the plan made by the lenders and RIL, all Future group listed companies will be merged into Future Enterprises. RIL will then invest Rs 8,500 crore in the merged entity which will include the retail business.
Given the fragmented nature of the domestic cable TV market and the need for last-mile connectivity, RIL, said sources, would have to do more to achieve its target of reaching 20 million homes and 15 million business establishments with its broadband services across 1,600 towns in the next few years.
Banking sources said the debt recast is actually 'Plan B' to help the nation's largest retailer stay afloat.
Shares of RIL on Monday opened at Rs 1,206.50, then gained further ground and touched its 52-week high level of Rs 1,238.05, up 2.87 per cent over its previous closing price.
The IT major is followed by RIL (Rs 795,628.55 crore), HDFC Bank (Rs 624,362.11 crore), Hindustan Unilever (Rs 367,880.69 crore) and ITC (Rs 367,513.78 crore).
Reliance Industries shareholders will have to pay only 25 per cent for subscribing to the company's mega Rs 53,125-crore rights issue, and the balance will have to be paid in two instalments in May and November next year, the company said.
Aramco also plans to invest in building India's largest oil refinery on the country's west coast.
RIL is setting up infrastructure for a full-fledged horizontal e-commerce offering - internally called the New Commerce - to simultaneously launch pan-India by October-November.
In the domestic m-cap ranking, TCS was at number one position followed by RIL, HDFC Bank (Rs 666,533.49 crore), HUL (Rs 400,325.83 crore) and HDFC (Rs 378,236.52 crore).
Refining major optimistic on planned investment of $16 bn for expansion and new technology to post healthy margins
Operating margins have been the primary driver of corporate earnings in India in recent quarters, despite revenue growth suffering from weak consumer demand. Companies across sectors have reported a sharp improvement in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) margins over the past two years, benefiting from lower commodity and energy prices. Higher margins more than compensated for slower revenue growth, resulting in double-digit growth in net profit for five consecutive quarters.
In the list of top-five domestic firms, RIL was placed at the top of the pack followed by TCS, HDFC Bank (Rs 6,50,136.04 crore), HDFC (Rs 3,85,207.96 crore) and HUL (Rs 3,76,545.49 crore).
Reliance Industries (RIL's) annual report released on Sunday highlighted the company's focus on new energy solutions, with chairman and managing director (MD) Mukesh Ambani stating that the age of fossil fuels will not continue much longer. RIL has sought shareholders' approval to give Ambani another five-year term as MD till 2029 at nil salary. The recently demerged Jio Financial Services, which "will leverage the prowess of digital and retail businesses", was expected to be listed soon.
Among the Sensex firms, Tech Mahindra, Wipro, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, HCL Technologies, Larsen & Toubro, ITC, Sun Pharma, NTPC and Titan were the major gainers. Nestle, Axis Bank, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Bharti Airtel were the laggards.
From the Sensex basket, Tata Consultancy Services, Nestle, Bajaj Finserv, Wipro, Maruti Suzuki India, Reliance Industries, Larsen & Toubro and NTPC were the major laggards. Tata Steel, Bajaj Finance, JSW Steel and Bharti Airtel were among the gainers.
The ruling was made by the Securities Appellate Tribunal, an independent quasi-judicial body that rules on appeals against orders passed by the Sebi.
The rights issue price has been set at Rs 1,257 a share, a discount of nearly 14 per cent to the last closing price of Rs 1,459. The company had set May 14 as the record date for the rights issue, which meant shareholders as on that day would be eligible to apply. Shareholders will be able to apply for one share for every 15 shares held.
Dispute resolution provisions in the production sharing contract remained unimplemented, while the regulator faltered, points out Jyoti Mukul.
The Bombay high court has modified the interim order on the sale of KG basin gas by Reliance Industries.
The impending merger between Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) with HDFC Bank may create challenges for large-cap fund managers, most of whom are already grappling to match the returns generated by their benchmarks. The combined weight following the merger in the benchmark Sensex and Nifty 50 indices is likely to be much higher than permissible limits for active mutual fund (MF) schemes. This could have a bearing on the performance of large-cap funds if HDFC Bank shares outperform the markets, as the schemes will be forced to remain underweight on the stock to adhere to the single-stock cap.
RIL's stake in Network18 would reduce to 64 per cent, from 75%, following the merger
Bajaj Auto was the top laggard in the Sensex pack, tumbling around 6 per cent, followed by M&M, Reliance Industries (RIL), Tata Steel, Tech Mahindra, SBI, Axis Bank and ICICI Bank. NSE Nifty tumbled 162.60 points or 1.36 per cent to 11,767.75.
The combined market valuation of three of the 10 most valued domestic firms eroded by Rs 73,630.56 crore last week, with Reliance Industries Limited taking the biggest hit. While HUL and ICICI Bank were the other laggards from the top-10 pack, TCS, HDFC Bank, Infosys, LIC, SBI, HDFC and Bharti Airtel were the gainers. However, the combined gain of the seven firms at Rs 49,441.05 crore was less than the total loss suffered by the three companies.
TCS had replaced RIL as the most valued firm more than four years ago but a sharp rally in the shares of the Mukesh Ambani-led firm in the recent past has helped the company close the gap.
Amazon has asked Sebi to suspend its review of the Rs 24,713 crore Future-Reliance deal and not grant a no objection certification on the ground that its challenge to the agreement was before the Delhi high court. E-commerce major Amazon has written to Sebi again, this time apprising it about the admission of its appeal before the division of the Delhi high court and urged the market regulator to suspend the review of the Future-Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) deal. This is the eighth letter by Amazon to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) chairman Ajay Tyagi since late October. Amazon has been opposing Future group's pact with billionaire Mukesh Ambani's RIL that was signed in August last year.
Tata Motors is likely to exit the S&P BSE Sensex and the Nifty50 indices once the demerger process of its commercial vehicle (CV) and passenger vehicle (PV) businesses is complete, analysts at Nuvama Institutional Equities said. They have compared the development with Reliance Industries (RIL) and Jio Financial Services, which got listed separately and eventually (in the next few days) got excluded from the domestic indices.
Ambani now holds 80.52 lakh shares or 0.12 per cent of RIL, up from 75 lakh shares held before the rights issue. His wife Nita and children Isha, Akash, and Anant too got 5.52 lakh shares each after they subscribed to the rights offering. They, too, hold 0.12 per cent each in the firm.