RIL regains country's most-valued firm status

Reliance Industries today regained its position as the country's most-valued firm company, while state-run Coal India slipped to third slot within a week of toppling the Mukesh Ambani-led corporate giant from the top.

After slipping to second position after RIL in early morning trade, Coal India (CIL) lost further ground and moved to third position behind another PSU major, ONGC, in the market valuation charts.

RIL had the top market value of Rs 2,46,507 crore on the BSE as of 1135 hours, followed by ONGC's Rs 2,42,847 crore and CIL's Rs 2,41,822 crore.

The shares of all three companies were trading in the red on the BSE, but the losses were sharper for Coal India.

While RIL was down 0.44% at Rs 752.90, ONGC was 1.01% down at Rs 283.85 and CIL was trading 3.15% lower at Rs 382.85.

At the end of yesterday's trade, Coal India was ranked the most valued company with a market capitalisation of Rs 249,685.88 crore, followed by RIL's 249,685.88 crore and ONGC's 245,328.68 crore.

Earlier, on August 17, CIL had toppled Reliance Industries to emerge the country's most valued firm, thus ending the private sector corporate giant's over four-year reign at the top of the market valuation charts.

Two days later on August 19, RIL briefly fell behind ONGC to third position in the market valuation charts, but returned to the second slot before the market close.

Interestingly, RIL had toppled state-run ONGC over four years ago to become the country's most valued firm.

A company's market valuation, or market capitalisation, is determined by multiplying its share price by the total number of shares.

CIL and ONGC had been closing the gap on RIL in terms of market valuation for the past few weeks, as RIL's stock has been under selling pressure and the two PSUs have been mostly performing well even in a weak market.

However, a sharp rally in RIL and ONGC stocks yesterday and a relatively sharper fall in CIL shares this morning led to the coal major losing its traction over the two energy giants.

RIL had first toppled ONGC to become the country's most valued firm way back in late 2006, but the state-run energy giant later reclaimed its top position, albeit only for a brief period. RIL has managed to stay on the top since February, 2007, except for the past few days.