Reliance joins the $ 100-bn m-cap club

Shares of RIL surged 4.42 per cent to its all-time closing high of Rs 1,082.20 on BSE.

Illustration: Dominic Xavier/Rediff.com

Reliance Industries on Thursday crossed the $100-billion market capitalisation mark in morning trade for the first time in the last 10 years following surge in its share price.

Shares of RIL surged 4.42 per cent to its all-time closing high of Rs 1,082.20 on BSE. Intra-day, it soared 6 per cent to Rs 1,098.80.

In the morning trade, the market capitalisation (m-cap) of the company touched Rs 688,513.11 crore ($100.3 billion).

The market valuation of the company has been calculated on the basis of morning exchange rate of Rs 68.58 against the dollar.

However, at close of the trade, the company's m-cap slipped below the $100-billion mark.

Helped by the surge in the stock, RIL's market valuation zoomed Rs 29,234.09 crore to close at Rs 685,725.09 crore ($99.9 bilion).

Reliance Industries had earlier breached this mark in intra-day trade on October 18, 2007.

The US dollar was quoted at Rs 39.59 at that time.

At NSE, shares of the company gained 4 per cent to end at Rs 1,080.90.

The stock was the biggest gainer among the blue chips on both the key indices.

In terms of equity volume, 13.71 lakh shares of the company were traded on BSE and over 2 crore shares changed hands at NSE during the day.

Rise in the stock was also instrumental in sending the benchmark Sensex higher by 282.48 points or 0.78 per cent to close at 36,548.41.

"Reliance Industries rose 4-5 per cent and hit its all time high, touching market capitalisation of $100 billion," said Manoj Sachdeva, research head, Hem Securities.

So far this year, shares of the company have surged 17.5 per cent.

IT bellwether Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in April this year became the first Indian company to close the trading session with over $100 billion market valuation.

The market valuation of Reliance Industries Ltd had crossed the Rs 6 lakh crore mark in November last year.

The company announced aggressive business plan at its annual general meeting (AGM) held last week.

The stock has been on an uptrend ever since and has gained over 12 per cent since July 5.

At the AGM, Mukesh Ambani had unveiled an ultra high-speed fixed line fibre broadband for homes and enterprises across 1,100 cities and announced plans for an e-commerce platform that may rival likes of Amazon.

TCS is the country's most valued firm with a market valuation of Rs 754,612.17 crore followed by RIL, HDFC Bank (Rs 563,852.26 crore), HUL (Rs 376,440.64 crore) and ITC (Rs 337,840.14 crore) in the top five order.