The Hindu Business Line : RPL jumps on talk of early commissioning of plant

The stock of Reliance Petroleum has been on an uptick in the last few days. On Friday, it went up by 3.82 per cent, which meant that the stock had appreciated by nearly 9 per cent in the last one week. Trading volumes also spurted in the counter with Friday alone accounting for 1.81-crore shares against its two-week average of 1.24-crore shares on the BSE. On the NSE, it closed at Rs 182.05, gaining 3.6 per cent over Thursday’s close. About 3.45-crore shares changed hands, of which, 67.5-lakh shares or 19.5 per cent were up for delivery. According to market participants, sentiment in the stock has been positively impacted by the talk that the commissioning of Jamnagar refinery plant could be advanced to July 6, which is the death anniversary of Dhirubhai Ambani.

According to brokers, it was originally scheduled to go on stream by the year-end, which could be advanced as major works have been completed. It may be mentioned here that Mr Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of Reliance Petroleum, recently said “the team is geared up to commission the refinery ahead of its initial schedule of December 2008.”

Chevron Corp of the US has picked up 5 per cent stake in RPL and has an option to raise the stake to 29 per cent before the commissioning of the unit.

Reliance Petroleum is building a 5,80,000 barrels a day refinery.

K.S. Badri Narayanan

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