TCS breaches $100-bn mark in market-cap

IT bellwether’s stocks surge 4.6% to touch all-time high of Rs 3,558

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country’s largest software service exporter, on Monday breached the $100billion mark in market valuation, riding on the back of record quarterly profit and a weak rupee.

Shares of TCS climbed 4.6 per cent to a record high of Rs 3,557.9 on Monday, extending gains for the third straight session after the company posted its biggest-ever quarterly profit last week.

At close of trade, however, the m-cap declined to $98.8 billion (Rs 6,53,767.50 crore).

Reliance Industries (RIL) had breached the $100 billion market cap mark on October 18, 2007. The US dollar was quoted at Rs 39.59 against rupee at that time. The rupee, which has weakened considerably since then, was at Rs 66.16 against the green back in the morning trade.

On NSE, TCS shares settled at Rs 3,408.65, up 0.18 per cent.

“It is an important milestone, which not only gives us something to cheer but also changes the perspective and sentiment toward other Indian software makers,” said Gaurang Shah, head investment strategist at Geojit Financial Services. “As a brokerage, we have remained positive on India’s IT industry when most analysts treated it as untouchables. With TCS, our confidence in the sector has been reinforced,” he added.

At the end of Friday's trading session, the IT major commanded a m-cap which was Rs 7,917.08 crore, just short of the $100 billion milestone at Rs 6,52,082.92 crore.

So far this year, shares of TCS has risen by 26.5 per cent. The IT major accounts nearly 11 per cent of the total

Sensex market cap of Rs 6,081,286.82 crore.

The nation's largest software exporter on April 19 reported a 4.4 per cent rise in March quarter net profit at Rs 6,904 crore. The Tata group flagship, which contributes around 85 per cent of the group's profit, reported a revenue growth of 8.2 per cent at Rs 32,075 crore for the three months to March. In dollar terms, the company had its highest revenue growth in 14 quarters at 11.7 per cent.

TCS' milestone came 14 years after it made a debut in the Indian equity market. Promoter Tata Sons still owns 71.92 per cent stake in TCS. The promoter had sold 1.5 per cent stake in the company in March. While the stock saw a correction of over 5 per cent on the day the stake was sold, it gained on 16 trading days out of a total of 27 trading days since then.

Even though TCS attained the glorious $100 billion hat, the level seems unsustainable.