Reliance Industries becomes first Indian stock to cross Rs 20 lakh crore market cap

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Reliance Industries (RIL) today become the first listed Indian entity to cross the Rs 20 lakh crore market capitalisation milestone after the stock rallied up to 1.89% to hit fresh 52-week high of Rs 2957.80 on BSE.

In the last two weeks alone, the stock's market value has gone up by Rs 1 lakh crore as the Rs 19 lakh crore-level was touched on January 29. So far in the calendar year, the share price of India's most valued stock has gone up by about 14%.

The Mumbai-based oil-to-telecom conglomerate has been one of the biggest wealth creators in Dalal Street's history. RIL shares had hit the Rs 1 lakh crore market cap mark in August 2005, while the Rs 10 lakh crore level was achieved in November 2019.

At Rs 20 lakh crore, RIL remains India's most valued firm and way ahead of TCS (Rs 15 lakh crore), HDFC Bank (Rs 10.5 lakh crore), ICICI Bank (Rs 7 lakh crore) and Infosys (Rs 7 lakh crore).

Also Read | LIC ditched 19 smallcaps in Q3. Is it end of party or jittery exit?

RIL's December quarter results were largely in-line with market expectations with its O2C EBITDA dropping 14% QoQ to Rs 140.6 billion due to maintenance in multiple units combined with lower cracks & deltas. Jio’s EBITDA was up 1.4% QoQ to Rs 142.6 billion, while Retail EBITDA rose 8% QoQ to Rs 62.7 billion.

RIL's profit after tax stood at Rs 19,641 crore in Q3FY24, down 1.2% QoQ and up 10.3% YoY and above market expectations of Rs 18,080 crore. PAT margin came at 8.7% versus 8.6% in the previous quarter.

«We see this earnings report as a positive