RIL shares up over 2%, near 6-month high on new Jio 5G phone launch buzz

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Reliance Industries (RIL) jumped over 2% to a near six-month high on the buzz of a new Jio 5G phone launch. The stock was last trading at Rs 2,598 on NSE, up 2% over the previous close. On a year-to-date basis, the shares have delivered flattish returns at 0.86%, underperforming the benchmark, which is up about 6%.

Monday's rally meant that the company's shares are just 6% away from hitting 52-week high levels. According to a report by IIFL, Jio’s bundled handsets under the JioPhone Next brand have found limited takers despite heavy discounting. Retailers in the larger towns we visited stocked JIOPhone Next; but cited sales being poor despite a 25% price cut from the original listed price.

Reliance Industries and its partner bp Plc had also announced the start of production from the MJ oil and gas field in the KG-D6 block, scaling up India's natural gas output to over 100 million cubic meters a day. MJ is the third and the last set of under-seabed gas reserves discovered in the KG-DWN-98/3 or KG-D6 block, off the east coast that the consortium was working to produce. All three sets of discoveries, with MJ being the deepest, were made more than a decade back and have been progressively put into production since 2020.

Together, the three sets of discoveries at their peak production will account for a third of all gas produced in the country and make up for 15%.Outlook Jefferies has a 'Buy' tag on the stock and sees a 22% upside, which will likely be driven by faster revenue growth. The brokerage firm finds favourable risks-to-reward while giving a price target of Rs 3,125. «Brick & Mortar (B&M) to drive growth with operating leverage while capex intensity should fall.