100 firms in $1bn m-cap club

Four of the six new entrants are from the engineering sector.

India Inc has 100 companies in the $1 billion market capitalisation club. Three weeks back, in the beginning of current calendar year there were 94 members of the club and two years ago, there were only 50.

The rally in capital goods stocks over the last few weeks is changing the scenario fast. Four of the six new entrants in the club are from the engineering sector.

The newly listed Punj Llyod, Crompton Greaves, Bharat Earth Movers and Engineers India are from the capital goods sector. United Phosphorus and Bajaj Hindustan are the other two which have joined the $1 billion market-cap club.

These 100 companies collectively account for 74 per cent market capitalisation of the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

Of the entire lot, 11 companies have market-cap of over $10 billion against seven in 2005 and three in 2004 "" Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Reliance Industries and Indian Oil Corporation (IOC). In 2002, only ONGC had a total market-cap of $10.4 billion (Rs 49,876 crore).

ONGC has been on the top of the list since 2002. In last three years, the total market-cap of this company has increased by 256 per cent "" from $ 10.4 billion (Rs 49,879 crore) in 2002 to $ 40.17 billion (Rs 1,77,806 crore) now.

Reliance Industries is at number two with market-cap of $21.84 billion (Rs 96,653 crore), followed by NTPC $21.08 billion (Rs 93,298 crore), TCS $17.82 billion (Rs 78,854 crore), Infosys Technologies $17.45 billion (Rs 77,242 crore) and Wipro $15.84 billion (Rs 70,095 crore). Overall, six companies have market-cap over $15 billion.

The club's membership is based on the rupee-dollar exchange rates at the end of each calendar year. On Tuesday's market capitalisation was calculated on an exchange rate of Rs 44.26 per dollar.

The newly listed Punj Lloyd tops the new entrant list with m-cap of $1.3 billion (Rs 5,594 crore) followed by Engineers India $1.1 billion (Rs 5,018 crore and BEML $1.1 billion (Rs 4,860 crore). Bajaj Hindustan with Rs 4,531 crore, United Phosphorus (Rs 4,463 crore) and Crompton Greaves (Rs 4,352 crore) are the other capital goods players with market capitalisation of $1 billion each.