RIL share hits one-year high; becomes 1st Indian co. to hit ₹21 lakh cr m-cap

Share of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) surged 2.1% today, taking the company's m-cap to ₹21,12,861.97 crore for the first time, thus becoming the first Indian company to hit ₹21 lakh crore market capitalisation. The share opened marginally high at ₹3,060.95 and hit the one-year high of ₹3,129. However, by 12.07 PM, the share price settled around ₹3,115.30. In contrast, the BSE benchmark Sensex is 0.26% or 205.97 points up at 79,449.15 today, while Nifty 50 is also in the green at 24,112.80, up 0.28%.

The RIL share has risen 23.10% in the past year, while its year-to-date gains stand at 20.22%. The stock has risen 19.48% and 6.91% on six-month and one-month basis, respectively.

Apart from RIL, the other companies in the BSE top 10 list include Tata Consultancies Services (m-cap of ₹14.2 lakh crore), HDFC Bank (₹12.9 lakh crore), ICICI Bank (₹8.5 lakh crore), Bharti Airtel (₹8.3 lakh crore), State Bank of India (₹7.5 lakh crore), Infosys (₹6.5 lakh crore), Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) (₹6.2 lakh crore), Hindustan Unilever (₹5.7 lakh crore), ITC (₹5.3 lakh crore), and L&T (₹4.9 lakh crore).

The RIL share hit a 52-week high a day after the company’s telecom arm, Reliance Jio, hiked tariff prices by up to 25%, becoming the first among the three major telecom companies to raise prices. Jio's cheapest monthly plan currently costs ₹155 for 2GB of data and is valid for 28 days. It has been hiked to ₹189 – an increase of 22%. Similarly, the tariff of Jio's ₹239 monthly plan has been hiked by 25% to ₹299.

The telecom arm of RIL recorded a net profit of ₹5,337 crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2024, up 13% YoY. The revenue rose 11% year-on-year to ₹25,959 crore vs ₹23,394 crore in Q4 FY23. The telco’s ARPU for the full fiscal year FY24 was recorded at ₹181.7, up 1.6%, and its subscriber base stood at 481.8mn.

RIL's Jio this week also acquired an additional spectrum in an auction conducted by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). The telco bought the right to use spectrum in the 1800 MHz band in 2 circles- Bihar and West Bengal - for ₹973.63 crore. It also acquired 9.4 MHz of paired spectrum in West Bengal at a cost of ₹553.38 crore, while it has acquired 5.0 MHz of paired spectrum in Bihar for ₹420.25 crore.

The net profit of the parent company, RIL, was ₹21,243 crore in the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2024, marginally up from ₹21,227 crore YoY. Sequentially, the PAT was up 8.1% from ₹19,641 crore in Q3 FY24. RIL’s revenue came in at ₹2.64 lakh crore in Q4 FY24, a growth of 10.8% vs ₹2.38 lakh crore YoY.