RIL back on top as market weight; see-saw with Infy on

Helped by a market-defying uptrend in its share price, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries on Monday regained its position as the country's most influential stock from IT major Infosys.

As a situation similar to the game of musical chairs continued for yet another day, Infosys slipped to the second position after RIL in terms of their weightage on the Indian stock market's barometer index, the Sensex.

In past six trading sessions, Infosys has toppled RIL twice -- first on December 12 and then on December 16 -- on as the most influential stock on the Sensex, while polyster-to-energy-to-retail conglomerate has also bounced back to regain its top position twice, including in Monday's trade.

Measured in terms of free-float market capitalisation, or the market value of non-promoter shares that are freely available for trading, the Sensex weightage of the companies present on the 30-share index changes on a daily basis.

At the end of Monday's trade, RIL commanded the top Sensex weightage of 10.51 per cent, followed by Infosys' 10.35 per cent.

This was based on RIL's free-float market value of Rs 132,522.81 crore (Rs 1,325.22 billion), as against Infosys' 130,517.94 crore (Rs 1,305.17 billion).

At the National Stock Exchange's Nifty index, another barometer of the Indian stock market, Infosys has, however, managed to retain its top position continuously since it dislodged RIL.

Infosys commanded a Nifty weightage of 9.21 per cent, as against RIL's 8.85 per cent, at the end of today's trade.

The weightage of different stocks differ on the two indices, as the Nifty comprises of a total of 50 stocks as against 30 for the Sensex.

In terms of total market valuation, including the value of promoter shares, RIL continues to retain the top slot of the country's most valued company (Rs 240,950.56 crore (Rs 2,409.5 billion), while Infosys ranks fifth (Rs 153,550.52 crore or Rs 1,535.5 billion).

RIL shares on Monday rose by 1.8 per cent on the BSE, defying an overall downtrend in the market and a 112-point fall (0.72 per cent)

in the Sensex.

In comparison, the Infosys shares underperformed the Sensex with a 1.6 per cent plunge.

Analysts said that a surge in the RIL shares limited the fall in the Sensex, which could have registered a steeper fall if the Reliance shares had also fallen on Monday.

Overall, RIL shares have been mostly underperforming the Sensex since the beginning of this year, whereas Infosys shares have performed relatively much better.

As a result, Infosys managed to dethrone RIL from its long-held position as the most influential Sensex stock earlier on December 12.

However, RIL managed to bounce back to the top position after three days on December 15, but again slipped to second slot after Infosys a day later on December 16 in a weak market.

RIL again jumped to the top slot today despite an overall weakness in the market, a trait the stock has been known to have shown over many past years with a better-than-market performance, the analysts believe.

At the end of last trading session on Friday, Infosys was the most influential Sensex stock with a weightage of 10.45 per cent, followed by RIL's 10.26 per cent.

Both the stocks have managed to hold onto a weightage of over 10 per cent for many days now and further changes could be seen in the top two positions in the coming days.

After RIL and Infosys, ITC currently commands the third highest Sensex weightage of 8.54 per cent, followed by HDFC (6.86 per cent), HDFC Bank (6.02 per cent), ICICI Bank (6.01 per cent), TCS (5.32 per cent), L&T (4.51 per cent), SBI (3.7 per cent) and Bharti Airtel (3.55 per cent) in the top ten.

RIL has enjoyed its position as the most influential stock for many years and the movement in its share price has been crucial for any major fall or rise in this index.

According to market analysts, Reliance's fall from top position last week did not come as a surprise, as the stock has been under-performing the market barometer Sensex for quite sometime.

On a group-basis, RIL had slipped to third slot in June this year, in terms of a corporate group's influence in moving the stock market benchmark Sensex, after HDFC and Tata groups.