HDFC Bank joins Reliance Industries, TCS in $100-billion m-cap club

Private sector lender HDFC Bank has joined the $100-billion market capitalisation (M-cap) club. Including the value of its American depository receipts (ADRs), the Mumbai-based lender’s market value currently is $101.6 billion. 

Only Reliance Industries (M-cap $123 billion) and Tata Consultancy Services ($108 billion) have higher market value. At fourth and fifth place are consumer goods companies Hindustan Unilever and ITC, with market cap of $55 billion and $53 billion, respectively. 

India now has three companies in the global top 100 list in terms of market value. Reliance Industries (RIL) ranks 72, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is at 86 and HDFC Bank at 99.

Both RIL and TCS first crossed $100 billion in market cap last year, but a correction in the markets and a fall in the rupee saw both slipping below the $100-billion mark in October. However, a sharp rebound in the markets and the rupee helped reclaim the mark.

The market cap of HDFC Bank’s local shares is $87 billion. But, the bank has an active ADR programme, where its shares trade at a 15 per cent premium to the value of its local shares. The bank had last year raised Rs 15,000 crore in equity, a large part of which came through the ADR issuance.