‘Rarest of rare’ bets on Reliance ahead of Jio Platforms’ biggest-ever IPO

Exchange data shows that both have built positions exceeding 3% each of Reliance’s marketwide position limit (MWPL) since early October. Both raised their positions over the past fortnight, trimming only marginally towards the end of last week.

The scale of the bets is virtually without precedent in Reliance’s derivatives counter. Analysts say they cannot recall a single client holding more than 3% of the stock’s MWPL—not even during Meta’s investment in Jio Platforms in 2020 or the pandemic-triggered global market meltdown.

While the rationale behind the bets remains unclear, analysts believe the sharp fall in Reliance shares to fresh lows may have prompted traders to position for a rebound. The stock has underperformed the Nifty amid persistent foreign investor selling, rising oil prices and a weakening rupee. The bets come ahead of the ₹30,213 crore IPO of Jio Platforms, which opens on Wednesday and runs through Friday.

“I would say this is the rarest of rare cases, wherein two clients have taken large leveraged positions on Reliance Industries, which to my memory has not figured on the MWPL list,” said Kruti Shah, quant analyst at Equirus Securities.

Shah said the steep fall in Reliance shares amid persistent foreign portfolio investor (FPI) outflows could have prompted traders to bet on either a technical rebound or a re-rating of the stock following the listing of Jio Platforms later this month.

Reliance shares delivered a negative return of 13.4% over the year to close at ₹1,211.20 apiece on Friday, compared with a 9.5% decline in the Nifty 50 to 23,146.15 over the same period, according to NSE data. FPI holdings in Reliance fell by 2 percentage points to 17.2% in the quarter ended June 2026 from a year earlier.

Since the two participants began building their positions this month, however, Reliance shares have risen about 2% from ₹1,187 at the end of September through Friday’s close. The stock hit a 52-week low of ₹1,152.20 on 13 October before recovering to ₹1,211 on Friday, ahead of the IPO’s anchor investor bidding on Monday.

Big traders

The first participant, designated Client 1 by the NSE, first appeared on the list of entities holding more than 3% of the marketwide position limit (MWPL) in Reliance futures and options contracts on 1 October, according to National Stock Exchange data.

The client held 3.32% of Reliance’s MWPL, which stood at 65.87 crore shares. The second client appeared on the list on 9 October, with a position equivalent to 3.02% of the company’s MWPL.

The first client increased its position to 3.41% by Thursday before trimming it to 3.35% on Friday. The second client raised its position to 3.17% by 14 October before reducing it marginally to 3.15% on Friday, according to exchange data.

“Some investors and large traders might be punting on sharp moves in light of the upcoming Jio Platforms’ IPO,” said Shrikant Chouhan, executive vice-president at Kotak Securities. He also described the leveraged positions in Reliance as “extremely rare and unique”.

MWPL list

Under exchange rules, the MWPL for a stock is set at 15% of its free float—the shares available for trading—or 65 times its average daily delivery value (by quantity) whichever is lower.

The MWPL list currently includes 137 of the 213 stocks eligible for futures and options trading. Other prominent names on the list include Jio Financial Services, Tata Steel, Wipro, Sun Pharma and Hindalco.

Ram Sahgal

Ram Sahgal is a deputy editor at Mint. He has over 20 years of experience in journalism, with previous roles at The Intelligent Investor, Bombay Times, The Economic Times, and The New Indian Express. Between his media roles, he briefly worked at a commodities exchange before returning to his true passion, business journalism. Ram graduated in liberal arts from St Xavier’s College, Mumbai, where he studied films, which explains his move to Bombay Times, where he covered the film industry during the rise of Sunny Deol and Sanjay Dutt. He took a leap of faith to transfer to The Economic Times, and thanks to his restless mind, later moved to cover the commodities beat. Over the past three years, Ram has been tracking the stock markets at Mint. His focus areas include writing about market infrastructure institutions, brokerages, derivatives, and related regulations. His hobbies include spotting trains and understanding the locomotives that power them. In his free time, he takes his octogenarian mother out for drives and goes to the cinema with her on weekends. If he has a dream, it is to write a screenplay for a movie. For now, he enjoys viewing market data on NSE and BSE, observing the shifting mood of Mr Market, and conversing with market experts.