RIL biggest laggard on Nifty50 as delay in smartphone launch upsets Street

Shares of Reliance Industries fell more than two percent on the NSE on Monday and were the biggest laggards on the Nifty50 index.

The oil-to-telecom conglomerate announced late on Thursday that the much-awaited rollout of smartphone JioPhone Next is deferred to Diwali, which came as a negative surprise for the investors.

The phone was previously expected to be launched on Ganesh Chaturthi, September 10.

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“This additional time will also help mitigate the current industry-wide, global semiconductor shortages,” RIL said in a regulatory filing.

Some analysts had baked in accelerated additions in the smartphone segment post the launch of JioPhone Next.

Although the delay in JioPhone Next did have a sentimental impact on the stock, it is not that big a negative for RIL as it is unlikely to have a significant impact on earnings, said Purvesh Shelatkar, Head of institutional broking at Monarch Networth Capital.

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Shelatkar believes RIL has acted smartly by delaying the smartphone roll-out so as to avoid the clash with the iPhone launch.

At 10:05 am, shares of RIL were trading 2.2 percent lower at Rs 2,371.10 on the BSE. The scrip has been falling for the past three trading sessions.

RIL could trade in a thin range between Rs 2,350 and Rs 2,420, said Swapneel Mantri, a technical analyst at Sushil Finance.

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