ONGC overtakes Coal India to become most valuable PSU

Sun, 10 Jul, 2011, PTI


MUMBAI: State-owned Coal India's market capitalisation took a sharp hit last week, with its valuation declining to Rs 2.2 lakh crore, paving the way for oil and gas major ONGC to move up as the top PSU by m-cap.

Coal India Ltd (CIL) fell sharply on heavy sell-offs in metals and mining firms after the Centre cleared a draft bill proposing that they share profits with the people displaced by their projects or pay them royalty.

CIL valuation dipped Rs 13,927.58 crore to Rs 2,28,652.23 crore, pulling it down to the fourth position from the second after Reliance Industries as on July 1. ONGC sailed past TCS, which was at the third position, to capture the CIL spot in the overall ranking as of last Friday.

CIL was also the biggest loser among the country's top-10 firms. It tanked nearly 6 per cent during the week to end at Rs 362. On Friday alone, the scrip plunged 8.12 per cent.

Last week, a ministerial panel, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee , approved the proposed Mines and Mineral (Development and Regulation) Bill, 2011, according to which coal miners would have to share 26 per cent of their profits and non-coal miners will have to pay 100 per cent royalty to the projects-affected people.

ONGC managed to regain the second spot after nearly two months. However, despite grabbing the coveted CIl position, ONGC saw a minor dip of Rs 85.55 crore from its m-cap, which stood at Rs 2,36,302.36 crore.

RIL continued to rule the chart despite shedding Rs 2,510.72 crore from its valuation, at Rs 2,79,740.81 crore.

IT major TCS, FMCG giant ITC and top private lender ICICI Bank were the other companies that saw m-cap losses.

TCS saw its valuation declining by Rs 2,906.44 crore to Rs 2,29,285.98 crore, while ITC lost Rs 1,122.03 crore from its m-cap which stood at Rs 1,54,955.45 crore. Similarly, ICICI's valuation declined by Rs 3,993.34 crore to Rs 1,22,120.48 crore.

In contrast, Infosys Technologies , SBI, NTPC and Bharti Airtel witnessed gains.

IT bellwether Infosys added Rs 2,503.42 crore to take its m-cap to Rs 1,70,985.06 crore, while country's biggest lender SBI saw its valuation swelling by Rs 3,654.37 crore to Rs 1,57,391.8 crore.

Power producer NTPC added Rs 3,215.73 crore, to reach Rs 1,56,581.29 crore m-cap, while Bharti's valuation surged by Rs 5,563.37 crore to Rs 1,51,179.27 crore.

Bharti last week unveiled major restructuring of its India and South Asia operations, combining various segments, including mobile and digital TV into two separate business units to improve efficiency.

During the week, the BSE 30-share benchmark index Sensex gained 95.24 points to end at 18,858.04.