Market gets over jitters

Reliance group scrips staged a smart 5 per cent plus recovery on the bourses, minutes after Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani released his statement.

However, selling pressure continued in the morning session and at one point all four listed Reliance group stocks, Reliance Industries, Reliance Energy, Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Ltd (IPCL) and Reliance Capital, slipped to multi-month lows.

The Reliance Industries and Reliance Energy scrips fell to one-month lows and IPCL to a new three-month low of Rs 176.50 in intra-day trading.

The market capitalisation of the four major Reliance group companies dipped by over Rs 3,535 crore.

Market sources said funds started aggressive buying on the Reliance Industries counter after the stock hit an intra-day low of Rs 509.20, 3.41 per cent lower than Friday's close of Rs 527.15. The scrip then gained over 1 per cent to close at Rs 532.80, 5.41 per cent over the day's low and 1 per cent over Friday's close.

As a result, the group's market capitalisation increased by Rs 666 crore on Monday to Rs 92,625 crore. Over 5.6 million RIL shares were traded on the Bombay Stock Exchange and over 13 million shares were traded on the National Stock Exchange.

Brokers said the smart recovery by RIL single handedly pulled up the Sensex from its intra-day low of 5877.97 to 5963.80 at the close.

Among the other listed companies in the Reliance group, IPCL gained 1.19 per cent to Rs 186.55, recovering from a low of Rs 176.80, Reliance Capital ended 5.48 per cent higher at Rs 145.25. The stock had hit an intra day low of Rs 130 on Monday.

Only the Reliance Energy stock failed to recover and ended 2.44 per cent lower at Rs 605.55, on top of the 1.23 per cent fall on Friday.