Reliance needs to pep up its value

NEW DELHI - Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd, India's largest company by market value, must tap the country's hunger for power and communications to boost the stock that has lagged behind key benchmarks, investors say.

The oil refiner and energy explorer has climbed 3.4 percent in Mumbai in the past year compared with a 20 percent gain in India's Sensitive Index and a 12 percent advance in the MSCI Asia Pacific Energy Index.

Investors shied away from the shares as a global recession curbed fuel demand and Mukesh clashed with his younger brother, Anil Ambani, over their business interests.