Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) today regained its position of the Indian stock market's most influential company, pushing the newly-crowned leader Infosys to the second place.
At the end of today's trade, RIL's weightage on the market barometer index, the Sensex, stood at 10.39% -- the maximum for any constituent of the 30-share index and higher than Infosys' 10.21%.
IT giant Infosys had toppled RIL from the top position three days ago on December 12, but could not retain its lead over the retail-to-energy conglomerate for long.
Measured in terms of its Sensex weightage, 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.
Earlier on December 12, RIL had slipped to second position after Infosys in terms of its Sensex weightage, which is measured by the market value of a company's free-float or non-promoter shares that can be freely traded in the market.
On that day, Infosys commanded a Sensex weightage of 10.25%, higher than RIL's 10.08%. Infosys retained its lead over RIL for three days till December 14.
Similarly at the NSE's Nifty index, another barometer of the Indian stock market, Infosys was the top-ranked stock with a weightage of 9.13%, followed by RIL's 8.48% as on December 12.
However, Infosys continues to retain its lead over RIL in terms of weightage on the 50-share Nifty index. At the end of today's trade, Infosys remained most influential among the Nifty stocks with a weightage of 9.08%, followed by RIL at the second position with 8.78%.
The weightage of a stock on Sensex and Nifty changes daily, as per the change in the market value of their shares.
According to market analysts, Reliance's fall from top position earlier this 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.
HDFC and HDFC Bank continue to lead the pack on group level with a collective weightage of over 13% in the Sensex, while four Tata group firms on the index (TCS, Tata Steel, Tata Motors and Tata Power) command a weightage of close to 11%.
RIL stock has crashed about 30% so far this year, which is higher than a fall of about 23% in the Sensex. The decline in Infosys shares have been much smaller in comparison.
