8 local firms in Global 500 m-cap club

Eight Indian companies are part of the Global 500 market capitalisation ranking with oil major Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) ranked at 185 with a market cap of $41.39 billion.

The private sector petrochemicals giant Reliance Industries is ranked at 197 with a market cap of $39.93 billion and software giant Infosys Technologies ranking at 299 with a market cap of $27.93 billion.

Telecommunications major Bharti Airtel occupies the 311th slot with a market cap of $27.44 billion, while public sector power major NTPC, with market cap of $27.33 billion, figures in the 312th position.

While TCS at the 333rd rank had a market cap of $26.18 billion, Reliance Communications ranked 429 with a market cap of $21.16 billion and Wipro with a 484 ranking had a market cap of $18.92 billion.

The market cap data sourced from Bloomberg show the United States leading the chart, with 182 US-based companies figuring in the top-500 global ranking.

The first three companies in the market cap ranking are from the US with Exxon Mobil Corp topping the list with a market cap of $455.28 billion. General Electric and Microsoft Corp are at the second and the third positions, respectively.

Japan stood second with 47 Japanese firms ranked among the top 500 with Toyota Motor (market cap of $219.01 billion) ranked first.

The UK at number three has 35 firms in global-500 market cap list, followed by France (32 firms), China (26 firms), Germany (23 firms), Hong Kong (17 firms), Switzerland (12 firms), Italy and Spain (10 firms each).

Interestingly, Reliance Industries with annual returns (year to date) of 98.98 per cent is the twelfth largest gainer among the global-500 companies.

Bharti Airtel is at 19 with annual returns of 89.32 per cent. Infosys Technologies ranked at 43 posting returns of 60.5 per cent, followed by Reliance Communications at 47, TCS at 55, NTPC at 83, Wipro at 98 and ONGC at 180.

Publix Super Market, the US-based company, tops the gainers' list with annual returns of 242.4 per cent, followed by China Life Insurance of China (+210.9 per cent).