RIL overtakes TCS as most valuable company

Mumbai, April 24 (IANS) Industrialist Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) on Monday regained its position as the most valued company of the country in terms of market capitalisation (m-cap) after a gap of four years.

The company's shares on the BSE closed higher by 1.19 per cent or Rs 16.65 to Rs 1,416.40 from its previous close at Rs 1,399.75. This lifted RIL's m-cap to Rs 4,60,518.80 crore.

The company overtook Tata Group's multinational IT company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in terms of m-cap.

The Tata Group's multinational IT company's shares on BSE gained by 0.77 per cent or Rs 17.90 to Rs 2,329.10 from its previous close at Rs 2,311.20. The company's m-cap stood at Rs 4,58,932.37 crore.

On April 21 also, RIL had overtaken TCS in terms of m-cap during intra-day trade. The company's shares had closed higher by 2.22 per cent to Rs 1,399.75 per share on last Friday with an m-cap at Rs 4,55,105.33 crore.

In comparative terms, the share price of RIL has risen by 31.2 per cent from January 1 to April 24, whereas TCS' scrip price has fallen by 1.1 per cent.

During the period under review the NSE Nifty only surged by 12.6 per cent and BSE Sensex gained by 11.4 per cent.

"Factors like healthy growth of RIL's traditional business such as petro-chemical and the fact that its telecom venture has transitioned from a capex-to-customer acquisition phase has worked for the company," Deepak Jasani, Head - Retail Research, HDFC Securities, told IANS.

"However, structural changes in the IT industry and digital disruption have hurt TCS. The company's margins are expected to face headwinds as a result of US immigration policies and an appreciating currency."

TCS had overtaken RIL's m-cap during February 2013. RIL's stock had made a record high of Rs 1,626.05 on January 15, 2008.