Helped by a market-defying uptrend in its share price, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL) today regained its position as the country's most influential stock from IT major Infosys.
As a situation similar to the game of musical chairs continued for yet another day, Infosys slipped to the second position after RIL in terms of their weightage on the Indian stock market's barometer index, the Sensex.
In past six trading sessions, Infosys has toppled RIL twice -- first on December 12 and then on December 16 -- on as the most influential stock on the Sensex, while polyster-to- energy-to-retail conglomerate has also bounced back to regain its top position twice, including in today's trade.
Measured in terms of free-float market capitalisation, or the market value of non-promoter shares that are freely available for trading, the Sensex weightage of the companies present on the 30-share index changes on a daily basis.
At the end of today's trade, RIL commanded the top Sensex weightage of 10.51%, followed by Infosys' 10.35%. This was based on RIL's free-float market value of Rs 132,522.81 crore, as against Infosys' Rs 130,517.94 crore.
At the NSE's Nifty index, another barometer of the Indian stock market, Infosys has, however, managed to retain its top position continuously since it dislodged RIL.
Infosys commanded a Nifty weightage of 9.21%, as against RIL's 8.85%, at the end of today's trade. The weightage of different stocks differ on the two indices, as the Nifty comprises of a total of 50 stocks as against 30 for the Sensex.
In terms of total market valuation, including the value of promoter shares, RIL continues to retain the top slot of the country's most valued company (Rs 240,950.56 crore), while Infosys ranks fifth (Rs 153,550.52 crore).
RIL shares today rose by 1.8% on the BSE, defying an overall downtrend in the market and a 112-point fall (0.72%) in the Sensex. In comparison, the Infosys shares underperformed the Sensex with a 1.6% plunge.
Analysts said that a surge in the RIL shares limited the fall in the Sensex, which could have registered a steeper fall if the Reliance shares had also fallen today.
Overall, RIL shares have been mostly underperforming the Sensex since the beginning of this year, whereas Infosys shares have performed relatively much better.
As a result, Infosys managed to dethrone RIL from its long-held position as the most influential Sensex stock earlier on December 12.
However, RIL managed to bounce back to the top position after three days on December 15, but again slipped to second slot after Infosys a day later on December 16 in a weak market.
