Why is RIL stock falling? Morgan Stanley has just downgraded it

NEW DELHI: Shares of Reliance Industries (RIL) declined over 3 per cent in Thursday’s session after global brokerage Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock.

After two years of outperformance, Morgan Stanley downgraded the stock from ‘overweight’ to ‘equal-weight’ with a price target of Rs 1,349 per share.

The global financial services company has attributed this downgrade to prospects for limited upside and headwinds for RIL's energy business.

Shares of RIL have been in the negative territory since last Monday, May 6. As of Wednesday's close, the stock has come off nearly 8 per cent since Monday.

The oil-to-telecom major has reported decent growth in consolidated profit for March quarter, backed by a strong show by retail and telecom divisions.

However, the company's standalone profit declined 1.60 per cent to Rs 8,556 crore on lower gross refining margin. The Q4FY19 revenues from refining and marketing segments fell 6.1 per cent YoY to Rs 87,844 crore while segment EBIT declined 25.5 per cent YoY to Rs 4,176 crore.

The segment performance was impacted by lower crude throughput due to planned maintenance. Also, weak light and middle distillate product crack impacted GRM. RIL shares traded 2.31 per cent down at Rs 1,269.40 on BSE around 10:35 am.