ONGC now second-most valuable firm; RIL down to third place

19 Aug 2011

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp, India's largest explorer, has emerged India's second-most valuable firm in terms of market capitalisation, behind Coal India Ltd, relegating Reliance Industries Ltd, till recently India's most valuable company, to third place.

Coal India had toppled Reliance - India's most valuable company since 2007 - from the top position earlier this week. Before that, ONGC was the top company.

According to the latest figures from the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), ONGC's market capitalisation was Rs238,698 crore, while RIL's M-cap had slipped to Rs238,154 crore.

Market capitalisation is the total market value of the company's outstanding shares. It is calculated by multiplying a company's outstanding shares by the current market price of a share.

ONGC has an equity capital of Rs4,277.74 crore comprising shares of face value Rs5 each.

ONGC's net profit rose 11.83 per cent to Rs4,094.90 crore on an 18.7 per cent rise in sales revenue to Rs16,268 crore in the first quarter ended June 2011 over June 2010. At the same time, ONGC's subsidy burden on selling fuel below cost swelled 118.4 per cent to Rs12,046 crore in the quarter over last year.