India''s billion-dollar market cap companies now total 63

Mumbai: The number of companies in India with a market cap of $1bn and above has gone up to 63, as of July 14, from 41 a year ago. The number was 27 in April '03.

The number of companies with $1bn in sales rose to 32 from 31 a year ago, with the addition of Tata Consultancy Services. The number of companies with an annual net profit of $1bn rose to five from four a year earlier. This exclusive club includes Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), Reliance Industries (RIL), Steel Authority (a new entrant), National Thermal Power Corporation and IndianOil (IOC).

The new entrants in the $1-bn market cap club include banks like the Bank of Baroda, the Union Bank of India, the Bank of India, the Kotak Mahindra Bank, UTI Bank and IDBI. While all these have more than doubled their market value, Reliance Capital's market cap has gone up more than three times.

Apart from these, the list includes Bharat Forge, ACC, Nicholas Piramal, Hindustan Zinc, Container Corporation, IPCL and Essar Oil among others. While the top ranking firms like ONGC, RIL, IOC and ICICI Bank trade at 2-4 times their annual revenue, the new entrants have a market cap to sales multiple of over 7, or in some cases like Reliance Capital, 17 times.

A significant surge in mid-cap shares over the past six months has resulted in the total market cap rising to just under Rs19,00,000 crore or $437bn, an 80 per cent rise in value in 12 months. The market cap to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio is hovering over 60 per cent, very close to the Asian average of 64 per cent.