Bharti in top 10 by market cap list, pips Ranbaxy

Buoyed by the financial package for the telecom sector announced by the Union communications ministry yesterday, Bharti Tele-Ventures made it to the list of top 10 companies in terms of market-capitalisation on the Indian bourses.

Bharti pipped Ranbaxy, which took a beating on the news of D S Brar's imminent exit. Bharti's market capitalisation stood at Rs 19,868.13 crore while Ranbaxy was close behind at Rs 19,794.72 crore.

In fact, its market-capitalisation was a shade lower than Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL).

The Bharti scrip closed at Rs 107.20 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), up 9.49 per cent. The scrip touched an all-time high of Rs 109.30 and then shed some gains during the day before closing at Rs 107.20.

The combined volume of shares traded on NSE and BSE were at 1.73 crore shares. The Bharti scrip was hovering around Rs 82 even at the beginning of the month.

10 Most-Valued of India Inc
Company	(Mkt Cap in Rs crore)
ONGC	1,04,356.69
Reliance	73,860.99
IOC	50,259.47
HLL	44,189.09
Wipro	40,066.73
Infosys	35,935.45
SBI	26,746.57
ITC	24,150.53
SAIL	20,507.44
Bharti-Tele	19,868.13

The first nine positions in the elite club of top 10 companies were occupied by ONGC, Reliance, IOC, Hindustan Lever, Wipro, Infosys, State Bank, ITC and SAIL in that order.

Analysts tracking the sector said that the stock market had been awaiting the news of foreign institutional investment (FII) hike in telecom sector for a while now.

The communications ministry yesterday announced that FII limit would be hiked to 74 per cent from 49 per cent. However, FDI will remain capped at 49 per cent.

Further, the government has cut licence fee for the first two cellular players in a circle by 2 per cent for the next four years. Revenue sharing charges have also been cut by 2 per cent subject to a minimum revenue share of 5 per cent.