Shares of Reliance Industries (RIL) on Monday fell nearly 2 per cent on uncertainty over the proposed deal with Aramco. This came as the government sought to block its plan to sell a 20 per cent stake in the oil-to-chemical (O2C) business to the Saudi state-backed oil company.

On the BSE, the share declined 1.78 per cent to close at Rs 1,571. During intra-day trades, it dropped 2.77 per cent to Rs 1,555. Similarly, on the NSE, it fell 1.76 per cent to close at Rs 1,570.95.

The lower close saw the company’s market valuation falling by Rs 17,990.13 crore to Rs 9,95,888.87 crore on the BSE. In terms of volumes, 12.74 lakh shares of RIL were traded on the BSE and over one crore units exchanged hands on the NSE.

Last week, the government moved the Delhi high court seeking to block RIL from selling a 20 per cent stake in its oil and chemical business to Saudi Aramco for $15 billion, in view of the pending dues of $3.5 billion in Panna-Mukta and Tapti oil and gas fields.

The proposed deal with Aramco is crucial for RIL in the context of its plans to be a zero net debt firm by March 2021. Reports say that RIL has mounted a strong counter to the government petition saying it is an abuse of process as no arbitration award has fixed any final liability of dues.

Meanwhile, on Monday there was not much action in the indices as investors preferred to wait for fresh cues. The Sensex ended 38.88 points, or 0.09 per cent, lower at 41642.66, while the Nifty was 9.05 points, or 0.074 per cent, lower at 12262.75.