MUMBAI: The RIL stock rallied to trade in four digits in Tuesday’s weak market, as investors view its $7.2-billion deal with British oil & gas major BP to be value-accretive in the long run, and would also help the Indian company overcome technological challenges faced in deep water drilling. As a result, the RIL stock went up over 4% in early trade but closed a tad off the high, at Rs 985, up 3% on the day.

A rub-off effect of the deal was witnessed at the Reliance Industrial Infrastructure (RIIL) counter, an RIL group company which maintains a east-west gas pipeline for RIL. During the day, the RIIL stock gained 18% to close at Rs 705 although dealers and market analysts feel that the euphoria in the counter could be overdone. Some analysts pointed out that although the RIL-BP deal raises the prospect of increased supply of gas from RIL’s east coast production blocks, the transportation of the same might not bring in huge revenues for RIIL since there are other pipelines that can supply the gas. “It seemed the market first jacked up the price (of RIIL) and then found a reason for the euphoria,” said the head of a local brokerage.

Although the RIL pack rallied, the market witnessed selling with the BSE sensex closing 142 points down at 18,296. The slide came on the back of heavy selling in the stocks of companies which are sensitive to interest rates: auto, capital goods and banking. The session also saw a net outflow of Rs 386 crore by FIIs while domestic institutions had a net inflow at Rs 414 crore.