RIL rallies 4% intraday after Jio's stance on tariffs; eyes Rs 10 lakh crore m-cap

Shares of Reliance Industries  (RIL) surged 4 percent intraday on Wednesday after its telecom arm Reliance Jio said that it will increase tariffs in the next few weeks.

The stock rose as much as 4.1 percent to hit its 52-week high of Rs 1,571.85. It settled the day 2.5 percent higher at Rs 1,547 as compared to a 0.45 percent or 182 points rise in BSE Sensex at 40,651.

The stock has gained over 34 percent on a year-to-date basis while the company's market-cap has soared to Rs 9.8 lakh crore.

The company said that it is exploring an "appropriate" increase in tariffs to comply with the regulatory regime but added that the spike will be in a manner that does not adversely impact data consumption or growth in digital adoption.

For the quarter ended September, Reliance Industries reported a 18.3 percent YoY rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 11,262 crore while its net revenue grew by 4.8 percent to Rs 163,854 crore driven by robust growth in retail and digital services businesses.

RIL also announced that it will set up a new subsidiary to bring all its digital initiatives under a single entity with an equity infusion of over Rs 1 lakh crore.

Earlier, global investment firm Bank of America Merill Lynch (BofAML) said that RIL could become the first Indian company to reach $200 market cap in 24 months backed by its new commerce venture and fixed broadband business.

According to the brokerage, the stock is likely to receive an additional boost with several initiatives undertaken. New commerce initiative of empowering Kiranas in unorganised retail market by offering MPoS (mobile point-of-sale), entry into SME enterprise space with Microsoft, Jio's fiber broadband business and digital initiatives such as advertising could push the market capitalisation of the conglomerate to $200 billion, the brokerage said.

 

: RIL, the promoter of Reliance Jio, also controls Network18, the parent company of CNBCTV18.com.