Mumbai: The shares of Reliance Industries, which has the maximum weight on the market indices, on Monday plunged nearly two per cent on the Bombay Stock Exchange after the company sold 3.3 crore treasury shares for the second time this month.
The RIL counter was weak on the BSE throughout the day and plunged 3.26 per cent to Rs 1,066 in mid-session.
It later settled at Rs 1,081.55, down 1.85 per cent over previous close, becoming the biggest loser among the Sensex counters.
Last week, RIL had raised Rs 2,675 crore by selling 2.58 crore shares at an average price of Rs 1,035 a piece.
"The RIL shares have been underperforming the broader market. If the company comes out with an announcement that it will not sell shares any further, the scrip would move up," Nagpal added.
Meanwhile, the bellwether index Sensex ended the day nearly flat posting a fall of 13.58 points to close at 17,526.71 points.
On the National Stock Exchange RIL ended the trade with a of 1.78 per cent at Rs 1083.50. During the day the scrip had dipped 4.81 per cent to a low of Rs 1050.
Over 4.5 crore shares changed hands on both the bourses on Monday. Monday 's selling price of Rs 1,050 was over three per cent below on Monday 's closing share price of RIL.
RIL created treasury stocks after it merged Reliance Petroleum with itself in 2002. After Monday 's block deal, the Petroleum Trust holds about 12 crore treasury shares worth over Rs 13,000 crore at the current market price.
Treasury stock are shares of a company which are not issued to the public and are kept in the companies treasury to be used to create extra cash when needed.
PTI
First Published: Monday, January 11, 2010, 18:36