BENGALURU, July 24 Reuters Shares of Reliance Industries, India39;s largest company by market capitalisation, fell nearly 3 on Monday, the most in nearly two weeks, after the conglomerate posted a biggerthanexpected drop in profit late.

The stock also slid 3.1 on Friday, ahead of the results, but that came after a rally of a little over 13 this month ahead of the demerger of Jio Financial Services last Thursday when the stock hit a record high.

However, the focus on Monday was on the fading fortunes of billionaire Mukesh Ambaniled company39;s flagship oiltochemicals O2C business after recordhigh refining margins last year following the postpandemic jump in demand for fuels.

The business39;s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation EBITDA fell 6 in the latest quarter, weighing on overall profit since despite expanding into retail, green energy and telecommunication, the O2C business remains Reliance39;s largest at over 63 of operational revenue.

Analysts at Jefferies expect that the unit39;s profitability in the current quarter will remain under pressure from a limited impact of the EU ban on imports of Russian refined products, weak economic activity in China and the narrowing discount on Russian crude.

Even Reliance39;s telecoms and retail unit did not fare as well as expected.

In fact, Reliance Jio, the telecoms unit, posted its slowest profit growth in six quarters on higher expenses and a slowdown in tariff hikes.

Meanwhile, analysts at…