Even though the RIL stock declined, it touched an intra-day high of Rs 405 (breaching its 52-week high in the process) at the NSE. The stock price of RIL went down by 1.13 per cent on the BSE before closing at Rs 384 while at the NSE the stock went down by 1.23 per cent to close the day at Rs 384.2.

The interesting point to note was a sharp decline in volumes at these counters. The combined trading volumes at both bourses went down by close to 50 per cent at 1.27 crore shares on Wednesday as compared with 2.25 crore shares traded on Tuesday. Aggregate turnover on both bourses went down from Rs 873 crore to Rs 489 crore. At the NSE, the RIL stock touched the 52-week-high mark before closing at Rs 384.2. RPL on the other hand went down by 1.85 per cent at the BSE to close at Rs 63.5 while at the NSE the scrip went down by 1.55 per cent to close at Rs 63.55. The combined trading volumes at the two bourses were 1.75 crore shares on Tuesday which dropped significantly at 1.35 crore shares on Wednesday. The RPL scrip reached an intra-day high of Rs 65.6 both at the BSE and NSE on Wednesday.

However, the broking community cited the panic selling in the aftermath of the quake as having resulted in the decline in the stock prices. And as the BSE benchmark Sensex went down by 45 points on Wednesday to close at 4325.7 points, Reliance, being a heavyweight in the Sensex, also went down. RIL has recorded a 21 per cent jump in its net profit to Rs 759 crore on a turnover of Rs 6,555 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2000. RPL on the other hand recorded a net profit of Rs 441 crore on a net sales of Rs 9,149 crore during the same period.