Driven by a strong rebound in petrochemicals business, and supported by growth in the retail segment, Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is expected to clock a stellar sequential improvement in its net profit for the December quarter of the current financial year (Q3FY21). The firm is scheduled to report its Q3 earnings on Friday, January 22. Analysts are penciling-in up to 32 per cent sequential growth in RIL’s consolidated net profit, pegged at Rs 12,600 crore, against a profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 9,567 crore reported in the September quarter of FY21 (Q2FY21). “Sharply lower interest costs and a continued decline in the tax rate should drive around 32 per cent increase in attributable PAT on a quarterly basis. As regards the pre-tax profit, it should still be down year-on-year, given a sharply lower consolidated tax rate,” wrote analysts at JPMorgan in a result preview report. RIL’s profit before tax (PBT) and net profit in the year-ago period stood at Rs 15,082 crore
Synopsis
The RIL stock has fallen 15 per cent in the last three months, compared with a 21 per cent rise in Nifty50.
Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani
NEW DELHI: At some point last year, Reliance Industries (RIL) played a major role in the rebound that the benchmark equity indices stages from their March lows.
The rally in RIL shares was such that it helped Mukesh Ambani climb up the billionaires’ ranks to become the world’s fourth richest with a fortune of nearly $90 billion.
This was when the stock hit a record high of Rs 2,368.80 in September 2020. Since then, the stock has come off 19 per cent, and Ambani s fortunes have dropped to $73.9 billion. He is no more in the top 10 billionaires list. The dominance of RIL shares in the market benchmarks has also reduced significantly, though most brokerages still remain bullish on the stock.