MUMBAI: Wiping out the day’s gains, shares of Reliance Industries plunged to their lowest level in a month, as Chairman Mukesh Ambani’s address to the shareholders at the annual general meeting lacked any surprise element for Dalal Street.
The stock ended 1% down at Rs 2,443.75 on the National Stock Exchange, after hitting a 1-month low of 2,431.10 intraday.
This is the third consecutive time Ambani has disappointed investors by making no big-bang announcements.
In the last two years, shares of RIL have ended in the red on the day of the AGM address.
“The company’s stock experienced a decline due to the absence of clear timelines regarding the telecom and retail IPOs,” said Santosh Meena, Head of Research, Swastika Investmart.
Following the announcement of a 1% stake sale in subsidiary Reliance Retail Ventures to Qatar Investment Authority, Dalal Street was abuzz with talks that Ambani might throw some colour on a potential initial public offering of the subsidiary.
However, there wasn’t any mention about it in the Ambani speech.
“Several marquee global strategic and financial investors have shown strong interest in Reliance Retail. I will update you about our progress with them in due course,” Ambani said.
The market was also expecting finer details on the Jio Financial business strategy and expansion plans. Ambani said that Jio Financial will massively increase financial services penetration through a digital-first approach, and will also enter into the growing insurance sector.
Besides this, the launch of JioAirFiber on September 19, and a possible succession plan through induction of Akash, Isha, and Anant Ambani as directors on RIL board were the other announcements done by Mukesh Ambani at the AGM.
However, these announcements failed to change investors’ mood, who resorted to selling the stock.
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