School’s out for those not connected
Online education during the pandemic blacks out marginalised students in Odisha’s rural districts
Four of the 10 most valued Indian firms added ₹3,01,847.99 crore to their market capitalisation last week, led by Reliance Industries which surpassed the ₹15 lakh crore mark in valuation.
RIL, India’s most valued firm, added a whopping ₹2,51,067.2 crore to its market valuation that stood at ₹15,68,015.09 crore on Friday.
Shares of Reliance Industries were in the limelight last week amid media reports that it has offered a 40 per cent stake in its retail arm worth about USD 20 billion to Amazon.com, which the company said was speculative.
Also, on Wednesday, it was announced that US private equity firm Silver Lake Partners would buy 1.75 per cent stake in RIL’s retail arm for ₹7,500 crore.
Tata Consultancy Services, Hindustan Unilever Limited and Infosys were the other gainers in the coveted list of most valued firms last week. HDFC Bank, HDFC, Bharti Airtel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank and ITC emerged as losers with their combined market valuation dropping by ₹54,801.02 crore.
Among gainers, the valuation of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) rose by ₹31,501.27 crore to ₹8,90,703.56 crore and that of Infosys by ₹11,138.31 crore to ₹4,02,683.22 crore. Hindustan Unilever Limited also added ₹8,141.21 crore to ₹5,07,327.93 crore in its valuation.
The losers
In contrast, the market capitalisation of HDFC Bank tumbled ₹22,727.92 crore to ₹5,93,512.25 crore. Bharti Airtel’s valuation diminished by ₹17,157.73 crore to ₹2,68,222.48 crore and that of Kotak Mahindra Bank declined ₹9,608.05 crore to ₹2,63,207.24 crore.
The market capitalisation of ITC dipped by ₹3,383.8 crore to ₹2,26,283.99 crore and that of ICICI Bank went lower by ₹1,823.57 crore to ₹2,55,249.73 crore. HDFC’s valuation eroded by ₹99.95 crore to ₹3,17,221.68 crore.
The BSE Sensex advanced 497.37 points or 1.29 per cent in the last week.
RIL was the topper in the ranking of top-10 companies, followed by TCS, HDFC Bank, HUL, Infosys, HDFC, Bharti Airtel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Bank and ITC.