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

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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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