Reliance Industries received a setback on Tuesday due to profit booking after witnessing huge accumulation on Monday.

The scrip of India's corporate No. 1 dipped 1.44% to Rs 298.15 at 11:30 IST. Over 860,000 Reliance Industries shares were traded on BSE by then.

In the 15 sessions between 31 January and 24 February 2003, the petrochemicals and oil refining giant rose 14.9% to Rs 302.50 from Rs 263.20. On Monday, the scrip recorded over 3.88 million shares on BSE.

The market seems to have turned cautious on Tuesday as international political tensions took centre-stage after North Korea fired a missile into the sea near the Korean peninsula, a move that could further worsen the global political scenario and worry nervous investors even further. The expiry of the February 2003 contract that ends on Thursday (27 February 2003) has also kept players at bay.

But, RIL's fortunes should have been boosted today following news that the company has found more gas in the Bay of Bengal. The gas reserve in the block is estimated to be nine trillion cubic feet. Earlier, in October 2002, RIL had indicated gas reserves in the range of 7 trillion cubic feet, or 45 million standard cubic metres per day, in its new discovery off the country's eastern coast.

Late October 2002, RIL said that its Krishna-Godavari basin (Andhra Pradesh) gas project will go on stream around mid-2004. The cost of development of the project may total $1.3 billion, it added.

Earlier, RIL signed agreements with the Centre in respect of the oil and gas blocks awarded to it under the third round of the New Exploration Licensing Policy. RIL, in consortium with UK-based Hardy Oil, signed agreements for nine blocks including seven deepwater blocks.

On 28 December 2002, RIL launched mobile telephony services nationwide through Reliance Infocom, the day being the birthday of its founder late Dhirubhai Ambani. Reliance Infocomm, an arm of RIL, is expected to roll out basic telephony services in 17 states. It has already laid 40,000 km of optic fibre across the country to cover various facets of telecom services including basic, Internet and long distance telephony. The company is expected to provide cheaper services. It is banking on a lower margin-high volume game. RIL has reportedly invested a huge sum in Reliance Infocomm - of over Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion).

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

RIL registered impressive results for the third quarter ended 31 December 2002. It posted a 24% rise in net profit to Rs 1,083 crore (Rs 10.83 billion), compared to Rs 873 crore (Rs 8.73 billion) in the corresponding period of the previous year. Total income increased by 7.58% to Rs 11,243 crore (Rs 112.43 billion) from Rs 10,450 crore (Rs 104.5 billion) in DQ 2001. The figures for the corresponding previous period have been restated to include the effect of the amalgamation of Reliance Petroleum with RIL with effect from 1 April 2001.

The 24% rise in RIL's net profit has beaten a capitalmarket.com poll (of three analysts) which estimated net profit in the range of Rs 766-828 crore (Rs 7.66-8.28 billion). Sales were forecast at Rs 11,045-12,500 crore (Rs 110.45-125 billion).

Meanwhile, the promoters held 43.7% equity stake in RIL, while the public, domestic and foreign institutions held 15.3%, 13% and 26.4% respectively.

BSE code: 500325