TCS crosses Rs6-trillion market cap

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's largest IT consultancy firm, on Wednesday crossed market capitalisation of Rs6 lakh crore or 6 trillion on the BSE and NSE after a 17 per cent rally in its stock this year.

The Mumbai-based firm is the second Indian firm to achieve this, with Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) retaining the top slot.

The TCS stock has a current valuation of about Rs6.07 lakh crore. The stock hit a fresh 52-week high of Rs 3,254.80 rising 4.88 per cent on BSE in early trade today and scaled the new record of market capitalisation. Amid the rally, the stock also briefly pipped market heavyweight RIL to become the top stock in terms of market capitalisation.

The TCS stock is up 19 per cent or 510 points since the beginning of this year. On an yearly basis, the stock has gained 38.92 per cent or 890 points on BSE.

The TCS stock closed 2.30 per cent or 71 points higher at 3174 on the BSE on Wednesday.

Reliance Industries stock fell 1.75 per cent or 17 points to 964.55 on the BSE. RIL's market cap stood at Rs6.10 lakh crore.

On October 27, 2017, RIL crossed the Rs 6-lakh crore mark for the first time ever after its stock touched an all-time high of Rs 958.20.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) reported a 3.6 per cent fall in net profit to Rs 6,531 crore in the December 2017 quarter.

The Mumbai-headquartered company had posted a net profit of Rs6,778 crore in the October-December quarter of the previous fiscal, the company said.

Reliance Industries Limited posted its highest-ever quarterly consolidated net profit of Rs9,423 crore, recording 25.1 per cent growth in Q3.

The company's total revenue stood at Rs109,905 crore, which is up 30.5 per cent as compared to Rs 84,189 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. RIL's net profit was at Rs7,533 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Apple Inc is the biggest tech company by market capitalisation at $900.41 billion, followed by Alphabet Inc, Microsoft Corp., Amazon.com Inc and Tencent Holdings Ltd with $814.89 billion, $708.97 billion, $656.57 billion and $573.94 billion, respectively.

Among all listed companies the world over, Reliance Industries is at 118th place while TCS ranks 119th in terms of market capitalisation.

The recent surge in TCS shares was triggered by three large new orders won by the company since it announced its December quarter earnings.

The company said this month that it had won a $690-million, 10-year contract from a unit of British insurer Prudential Plc.

It won two more than $2 billion, multi-year outsourcing contracts from television ratings measurement firm Nielsen and Transamerica Life Insurance Co, a unit of Dutch insurer Aegon NV, in December and earlier this month, respectively.