News: 5 New Indian Firms In $1 Bln Market Cap Club

(RTTN 05/04/2006) Mumbai - The BSE Sensex grew over 500 points to 11,564.36 on April 3, from 10,950.30 as at March 24, in six trading days. Meanwhile, during this period, the market capitalization of listed stocks rose by Rs. 173,174 crores to Rs. 30,91,049 crores from Rs. 29,17,875 crores on March 24.

It has been indicated that in the 500-points rally, there were gainers and losers in the ratio of 5:1. Of the 2,705 actively traded stocks, the gainers were 2,179 and the losers were 455, while as many as 69 stocks remained unchanged. The gainers increased the shareholders value by Rs 178,528 crores, while losers destroyed its shareholders wealth by Rs. 5,354 crores.

Among the Sensex gainers, Gujarat Ambuja Cement tops the list, swelling its value by 10.2% to Rs. 106.30, followed by Bharti Tele-Ventures 10.1% at Rs. 421.40, Tata Steel up 10% at Rs. 542.80, Cipla up 9.6% at Rs. 686.70 and Hindustan Lever up 9.4% at Rs. 279.40. In the list of losers, Tata Power figured with its market price declined by 0.7% to Rs. 584.30.

It has also been reported that the $1 billion market cap club has increased to 109, with Essar Oil, Pantaloon Retail, Britannia Industries, JSW Steel and United Breweries joining the big league.

At the Sensex level of 11,500, India Inc. has 59 companies in Rs. 100 billion or Rs. 1,000 crores bracket, with ONGC topping the list with market cap of Rs. 187,424 crores, followed by NTPC Rs.111,603 crores, Reliance Industries Rs. 115,597 crores, TCS Rs. 95,289 crores and Infosys Rs. 86,125 crores.

According to a survey on119 sectors by Business Standard Research Bureau, only two sectors lost ground during the 500 point rally and as many as 25 selectors gained over 10%, while 57 gained between 5% and 10%. Industrial explosive topped with 29.51% gains, followed by breweries up 27.93%, metals 21.3%, industrial gases 20.3% and man-made textiles 16.98%.