India's largest private sector company, Reliance Industries (RIL) has sold 4.01 per cent of Reliance Petroleum (RPL) shares to institutional investors for Rs. 4023 crore.

RIL said, “The sale of RPL shares was conducted by transactions through the stock exchanges and has helped to further broad base the shareholding pattern of RPL."

After the stake sale, RIL's holding in RPL has fallen to 70.99% from 75%. The number of shareholders of RPL has increased from 12 lakh shareholders at the time of IPO to 16 lakh.

RPL is one of the most traded stocks in the market. Presently it hold market cap worth Rs. 94,275.00 crore.

RPL is setting up a refinery and a 900,000 metric ton a year polypropylene plant at Jamnagar Special Economic Zone in western Gujarat state, which is expected to come on stream in December 2008.

The RPL stock was closed on Friday at Rs 209.50, after hitting an intra-day high of Rs 215.