Stock market cap hits $1 trillion

In rupee terms, market capitalisation inches closer to GDP.

The recent bounce-back in the stock markets has helped India’s market capitalisation (m-cap) touch the $1-trillion-mark again. As a result, India is back among the Top 10 in world m-cap rankings.

Now, India’s m-cap is the ninth largest at $1.04 trillion. It has overtaken Brazil, Switzerland and Australia in the last two-and a-half months. The m-cap was at its peak at $1.89 trillion in January 2008.

In rupee terms, India’s m-cap of Rs 49,61,449 crore is closer to its gross domestic product (GDP) of Rs 53, 32, 753 crore.

Another factor that has helped the market hit the $1-trillion-mark is the appreciation of the rupee by almost 10 per cent. The rupee rose from Rs 51.88 on March 9 to Rs 46.96 yesterday.

During this period, India outperformed the rest of the world in value appreciation. The total m-cap more than doubled from $506,146 million ($0.5 trillion) to $1.04 trillion during the period.

On the other hand, m-caps of the US, China, Japan and Switzerland saw increases in the range of 20-40 per cent. Also, m-caps of the UK, Hong Kong, France, Germany, Canada, Brazil and Australia increased between 40 per cent and 70 per cent each.

India’s share as a proportion of the total world m-cap increased from 1.98 per cent to 2.79 per cent. The US, Japan, China and Germany saw declines of 1-1.5 per cent.

Also, a large number of companies have seen their m-cap rise to over $1 billion. At present, there are 139 companies in this bracket as against 109 before the rally started.

Companies like Financial Technologies, HMT, Jai Corp, Bajaj Finservices, GVK Power and Infrastructure and Punj Lloyd have entered this list by gaining 50-90 per cent each.

Overall, the market value of 1,162 companies has more than doubled. Also, 923 firms have seen a rise in the range of 50-100 per cent.