Mukesh Ambani is back to being the second-richest Asian after the rally, overtaking Tencent Holdings’ CEO Ma Huateng
Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is back in the $100 billion club, a journey that has taken more than a decade. Shares of the company jumped as much as 6% to Rs 1,098.80 a piece during intra-day trade on Thursday thus pushing up the market value to Rs 6.9 trillion. RIL shares finally closed on an all-time high of Rs 1,082.20 on BSE i.e. 4.42% up compared to the previous day's close.
Reliance Industries had earlier breached the $100 billion mark in intra-day trade on October 18, 2007. The US dollar was quoted at Rs 39.59 at that time.
Reliance is the second Indian corporate after Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in April surpassed the $100 billion mark. Ambani has regained the second-richest Asian tag, overtaking Tencent Holdings' chief executive officer Ma Huateng, according to estimates compiled by Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
"It is a big deal. Indian companies sporting large market caps is an announcement of the nation's emergence and entry into the big leagues," said Sunil Sharma, who oversees $1 billion of assets as the chief investment officer at Sanctum Wealth Management Pvt Ltd in Mumbai.
At NSE, shares of the company gained 4% to end at Rs 1,080.90. The stock was the biggest gainer among the blue chips on both the key indices. In terms of equity volume, 13.71 lakh shares of the company were traded on BSE and over two crore shares changed hands at NSE during the day. The rise in the stock was also instrumental in sending the benchmark Sensex higher by 282.48 points or 0.78% to close at 36,548.41.
"Reliance Industries rose 4-5% and hit its all-time high, touching market capitalisation of $100 billion," said Manoj Sachdeva, Research Head, Hem Securities. So far this year, shares of the company have surged 17.5%.
Reliance is on the cusp of a transformation as it hopes to get as much as half of its revenue from the newer consumer businesses, including telecom, and reducing its dependence on the mainstay oil-refining and chemicals segments. The stock had lagged the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex for years until March last year when Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd – the disruptive telecom unit that debuted in 2016 with free offers – decided to start charging for its data services and boosted investor hopes of better returns on investment.
The market valuation of RIL had crossed the Rs 6 lakh crore mark in November last year. The company announced an aggressive business plan at its annual general meeting (AGM) held last week. The stock has been on an uptrend ever since and has gained over 12% since July 5, 2018.
Ambani, while addressing shareholders earlier this month, laid out an ambitious e-commerce roadmap that would draw on group's retail and telecom units to take on the likes on Amazon.com Inc and Walmart Inc.
"Big Indian companies are demonstrating bigger innovation and ambition, precisely what is needed to take on the large US players," said Sharma.
TCS is the country's most valued firm with a market valuation of Rs 7,54,612.17 crore followed by RIL, HDFC Bank (Rs 5,63,852.26 crore), HUL (Rs 3,76,440.64 crore) and ITC (Rs 3,37,840.14 crore) in the top five order.
(With inputs from agencies)
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