FIIs hike stake in RIL

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) have hiked their stake in Reliance Industries in the June 2007 quarter as the country's largest private sector refiner has managed to better its gross refining margins.

On the other hand, with retail prices of auto fuels, kerosene and domestic LPG not being hiked in response to surging international prices, FIIs have pared their stakes in oil marketing companies during the quarter on a sequential basis, point out analysts.

The FIIs' stake in Reliance Industries has increased from 20.22 per cent at the end of the March 2007 quarter to 20.85 per cent at the end of the June 2007 quarter, according to the BSE's shareholding pattern data. The stake of mutual funds in RIL declined marginally on a sequential basis to 2.47 per cent at the end of the June 2007 quarter.

RIL is expected to report a gross refining margin of $14.5 per barrel in the June 2007 quarter compared with $12.4 per barrel a year earlier, point out analysts.

The shortage of global refining capacity in the last quarter, coupled with a rise in the regional benchmark Singapore refining margins on a y-o-y basis in the June 2007 quarter have resulted in the increase in GRMs. RIL's GRM was at $13 per barrel in the March 2007 quarter.

In the case of other upstream players like ONGC, the stake of FIIs remained steady at 8.67 per cent at the end of the June 2007 quarter. Meanwhile, in the case of oil marketing companies like HPCL, FIIs' stake at the end of the June 2007 quarter was 13.45 per cent compared with 15.6 per cent at the end of the March 2007 quarter.

In the case of IOC, it was 2.1 per cent at the end of the Q1 FY 08, compared with 1.92 per cent at the end of the March 2007 quarter.