India's Reliance eases off record highs as Q1 profit disappoints

BENGALURU, July 24 (Reuters) - Shares of Reliance Industries (RELI.NS), Indias largest company by market capitalisation, fell nearly 3% on Monday, the most in nearly two weeks, after the conglomerate posted a bigger-than-expected drop in profit late.

The stock also slid 3.1% on Friday, ahead of the results, but that came after a rally of a little over 13% this month ahead of the demerger of Jio Financial Services last Thursday when the stock hit a record high.

However, the focus on Monday was on the fading fortunes of billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led companys flagship oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business after record-high refining margins last year following the post-pandemic jump in demand for fuels.

The businesss earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell 6% in the latest quarter, weighing on overall profit since despite expanding into retail, green energy and telecommunication, the O2C business remains Reliances largest at over 63% of operational revenue.

Even Reliances telecoms and retail unit did not fare as well as expected.

In fact, Reliance Jio, the telecoms unit, posted its slowest profit growth in six quarters on higher expenses and a slowdown in tariff hikes.

Meanwhile, analysts at Antique Stock Broking said the retail divisions revenue did not rise as much as it had anticipated given the store additions and the acquisition of brands and businesses, including German retailer Metro AGs (B4B.DE) Indian unit.

Still, the average rating of the 32 analysts covering Reliances stock remains a \“buy\”, while the median price target is 2,840.50 rupees, Refinitiv data shows.

That implies a roughly 13% jump from the current price of 2,504.95 rupees and is 8% higher than the stocks record high of 2,630.95.