RIL topples TCS as most-valued firm briefly; SBI tops PSU chart

TCS shares also closed lower by 0.5% at Rs 2,308.65 a piece

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries on Tuesday briefly regained its status as India's top- valued firm from Tata Group's crown jewel TCS, while State Bank toppled energy behemoth ONGC as the most valued PSU.

RIL could not retain the most-valued tag for long as its shares failed to hold on to morning gains and closed 1.5 per cent lower at Rs 1,370.5 on BSE, giving the company a market capitalisation (m-cap) of Rs 4,45,578.92 crore.

TCS shares also closed lower by 0.5 per cent at Rs 2,308.65 apiece, but its m-cap at the close of trading remained higher than that of RIL at Rs 4,54,902.85 crore — the highest for any listed company in the country.

TCS had replaced RIL as the most valued firm more than four years ago but a sharp rally in the shares of the Mukesh Ambani-led firm in recent past, on success of telecom venture Jio, has helped the company close the gap and it managed to topple the Tata group's software firm in m-cap for a brief period this morning.

RIL saw its market cap soaring to a record high of about Rs 4.58 lakh crore in morning trade, at around 10.15 am, exceeding TCS' Rs 4.56 lakh crore at that time.

Shares of both the companies traded weak thereafter, but the plunge was sharper in RIL's case.

RIL shares have surged nearly 27 per cent so far this while that of TCS fell by over 2 per cent.

In another upheavel in the market valuation charts, State Bank of India (SBI) toppled ONGC as the most-valued PSU. Incidentally, ONGC had been the country's most valued firm across private and public sectors for some time a few years ago, when it first toppled RIL from the top of the charts and then also TCS from the pole position.

At the end of trade, the m-cap of SBI stood at Rs 2,35,307.51 crore. This is about Rs 2,961.79 crore more than that of PSU energy major ONGC's Rs 2,32,345.72 crore.

Shares of SBI ended the day with a mild gain of 0.17 per cent at Rs 290.15, while ONGC fell by 1.12 per cent to Rs 181.05 on BSE.

In intra-day, shares of SBI rose by 2.33 per cent to Rs 296.40 and ONGC lost 1.36 per cent to Rs 180.60.

So far this year, shares of SBI have surged almost 16 per cent while that of ONGC have fallen by over 4 per cent.

In the broader market, the Sensex gave up its early gains to end lower for the fourth straight session today.

The 30-share index rose over 267 points in morning trade and shot up to 29,701.19, but later lost momentum to hit the day's low of 29,286.38. It finally ended 94.56 points, or 0.32 per cent, lower at 29,319.10.