RPL - this is how it was sold

On November 6, RIL sold the largest chunk of 7.18 crore shares, which amounted to 1.60% of RPL and earned about Rs 1,691.48 crore, at an average sum of Rs 235, in the process.

This was the single-largest chunk to be unloaded, with the subsequent tranches accounting for less than 1%.

After November 6, there was a lull.

RIL returned to the markets on November 13 to 16, selling 0.30%, 0.65%, 0.38% and 0.13% RPL stakes, respectively. From November 19 to 23, the shares sold were again less than a percentage point. In this period, RIL sold 0.34%, 0.22%, 0.08%, 0.20% and 0.12% of RPL stake, respectively.

What’s intriguing is that huge voluminous trades were registered a few days before RIL started selling RPL shares. The whole November saw intriguing trading spikes in the RPL counter.

On November 1, the two premier exchanges witnessed frenetic activity as the refinery share recorded an intra-day all-time high of Rs 295 before it ended the day’s high-octane trading at Rs 261.85 per share. On that day, the delivery of shares accounted for 4.5 crore. And the character of trading that day was also very different as it ended with an unusually huge wave of deliveries.

About 4.46 crore RPL shares were delivered that day. On November 2, the deliveries recorded in the RPL counter in both the exchanges were muted at 1.76 crore share. On November 5, the spike was witnessed again as deliveries pole-vaulted to 3.36 crore and the share price ended at Rs 267.55.

While some demand was witnessed in the counter, it should be noted that there were sellers who matched the wits of buyers by unloading shares for delivery instead of squaring off, as in day trading.

Via DNA