ONGC market cap crosses Rs 1,00,000 crore

The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) scrip today gained 5.39 per cent to close at Rs 712.10 on the National Stock Exchange, and became the first public sector company to have a market capitalisation of over Rs 1,00,000 crore.

The only other company to have crossed this threshold is Wipro, whose market capitalisation had crossed Rs 2,00,000 crore on February 18, 2000.

The National Stock Exchange's S&P CNX Nifty today closed at an all-time high of 1,756.10, 22.85 points higher than yesterday, driven by strong gains in refinery and other old economy stocks. The Nifty's earlier all-time high of 1,756 was on February 11, 2000, during the peak of the technology boom.

The Bombay Stock Exchange Sensex closed at a new 44-month high of 5,455, gaining 36.77 points in brisk trades. Gainers outpaced losers 2:1.

Dealers said oil stocks had surged on expectations of huge dividend payouts. "The market is betting on huge dividends from state oil and refinery companies, which has sparked the big rally," said U P Bhat, a fund manager with Canbank Mutual Fund.

The Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd scrip vaulted 5.66 per cent to Rs 433.30 at close today, off the day's high of Rs 442.35.

The Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd stock price jumped 12.86 per cent to Rs 456.45. Kochi Refineries climbed 7.12 per cent to Rs 18.65 on reports that the company was planning to increase its refining capacity to 10 million tonnes per annum by 2005.

At today's closing price of Rs 712.10, ONGC's market capitalisation works out to Rs 101,540 crore, accounting for 17.3 per cent of the Rs 587,988 crore market capitalisation of the Sensex and 8.6 per cent of the BSE's total market capitalisation of Rs 1,180,382 crore.