Stock rally adds over $1-billion to Tata Group market value

A day after Cyrus Mistry was named Ratan Tata's successor as the Tata group chief, the stocks of a number of companies from the salt-to-software conglomerate soared higher on the bourses today -- adding more than USD one billion to the combined market value of the business house.

Blue-chips like TCS, Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Tata Power rallied in a strong market, helping the group attain a market capitalisation of close to Rs 3,80,000 crore (about USD 73 billion).

This marked a gain of more than Rs 7,200 crore (about USD 1.4 billion) in the group's market value from the yesterday's level.

The biggest contributor was the group's most valued firm TCS, also the country's biggest IT firm, while significant gains were also seen in the valuation of companies like Tata Motors, Tata Power, Tata Steel and Tata Global Beverages.

After the market closed yesterday, Tata group announced that Cyrus Mistry would become Chairman of the group's holding company Tata Sons in December 2012, after Ratan Tata retires from the position.

Mistry, Managing Director of the USD 2.5 billion Shapoorji Pallonji Group (SP Group) that holds over 18 per cent stake in Tata Sons as its single largest shareholder, has said he would disassociate himself from his family businesses.

Shares of two listed companies from the SP group, Forbes & Company and Gokak Textiles, also moved higher today.

In the Tata group, the stocks that moved higher today also included Indian Hotels, Rallis, Tata Chemicals, Trent, Voltas, Tata Communications, TRF, Tata Investment Corp, Taj GVK, Benares Hotels and Oriental Hotels.

However, a few like CMC, Tata Tele, Titan, Tinplate Co, Tata Metaliks and Tata Sponge ended with modest losses.

Earlier this morning, a number of stocks had opened on a strong note, but lost the momentum amid a weakness in the broader stock market trends.

As the overall market trend improved, the Tata stocks also recovered from their lows, while some of them had managed to stay strong even in the midst of a broader downtrend.

The market benchmark Sensex ended 158.52 points higher at 15,858.49 points. It had plunged by more than 200 points in the intra-day trade to touch a low of 15,479.97 points.

Tata group's TCS had also slipped into the red amid a broader market weakness in morning trade, but ended stronger with a gain of 2.53 per cent at Rs 1089.25. The company added over Rs5,000 crore to its market value in today's session.

Tata Motors had also opened on a weak note, but closed 2.76 per cent higher at Rs 173.15. Similarly, Tata Steel also reversed its early morning losses of over 3 per cent and closed with a gain of 0.64 per cent at Rs 384.90.

Tata Power and Trend gained about 1 per cent each, Tata Global Beverages over 2 per cent, Tata Communications 0.7 per cent, Voltas by 3.9 per cent and Tata Coffee 2 per cent.

There are about 30 listed firms in the Tata group, which has a total of about 100 operating companies.

The group's revenue rose 19 per cent to Rs 379,675 crore (about USD 83.3 billion) in the fiscal 2010-11, while its profit soared by a whopping 225 per cent to Rs 26,828 crore.

Its total assets rose 25.5 per cent to Rs 313,960 crore, while revenues from international markets grew 21 per cent to Rs 220, 277 crore.

The group also earned a net forex earnings of Rs 4,778 crore during 2010-11, as against a net loss of Rs 757 crore.

It's total headcount stood at 424,365 people at the end of 2010-11.