Nine of top ten most-valued firms give up ₹98,863 cr in market valuation

NEWDELHI: Nine of the top-10 mostvalued companies suffered a combined erosion of ₹98,862.63 crore in market valuation last week, with Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) and State Bank of India (SBI) taking the steepest hit.

ITC was the only gainer from the top-10 list. RIL, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), HDFC Bank, HUL, Infosys, HDFC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, SBI and ICICI Bank suffered losses for the week ended Friday, according to a weekly analysis of their market capitalization (m-cap) trend on the BSE.

Over the last week, the Sensex dropped 737.53 points, or over 2%, to close at 35,808.95 on Friday. From the most-valued companies’ list, RIL’S valuation slumped ₹21,456.38 crore to ₹7,88,213.12 crore, the biggest hit among the top-10 firms. The m-cap of SBI plunged ₹19,723.34 crore to ₹2,34,672.03 crore and that of TCS plummeted ₹11,951.35 crore to ₹7,62,071.81 crore.

HDFC’S valuation tumbled ₹11,725.23 crore to ₹3,22,531.39 crore and that of HUL tanked ₹9,600.22 crore to ₹3,83,803.08 crore. The m-cap of ICICI Bank dived ₹8,293.27 crore to ₹2,20,351.47 crore and that of Infosys dropped ₹7,906.92 crore to ₹3,24,044.79 crore. In contrast, ITC added ₹4,593.55 crore to ₹3,42,495.09 crore. NEWDELHI: Foreign investors have put in over ₹5,300 crore into the Indian equity market in the first half of this month, primarily on account of positive view on the interim budget 2019-20. The infusion into the equity market comes following a pull-out of ₹5,264 crore by foreign portfolio investors (FPI) in January.

According to the latest data available with depositories, a net sum of ₹5,322 crore has been pumped into equities during February 1-15.

FPIS pulled out a net amount of ₹248 crore from the bond market during the period. This has translated into a net investment of ₹5,074 crore in the country’s capital markets.

FPIS have turned into net buyers in February so far as India is one of the promising emerging markets, analysts said, adding that sustainability of the economic growth and formation of a stable government at the centre will play significant roles in the FPI flows.

The inflow into the equity market can be a result of the positive view on the budget.

Though India is among the promising emerging markets, the foreign i nvestors are expected to stay cautious for the next few months till elections, said Harsh Jain, chief operating officer at Groww.