On the last trading day of 2011, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) became the largest Indian company by market capitalisation overtaking Reliance Industries.

The market capitalisation of TCS stood at Rs 2.27-lakh crore, against RIL's Rs 2.26-lakh crore. On Friday, RIL touched a 52-week low for the second consecutive day at Rs 690 in intra-day trade.

“TCS's fundamentals seem strong and it has been reporting good numbers too. The rupee depreciation has also helped. In daily trade because of price movements, there can be changes in terms of market capitalisation but a long-term view needs to be taken,” said Mr Dipen Shah, Head of Fundamental Research, Kotak Securities.

In terms of weightage, Infosys had replaced Reliance as the top stock on the Sensex on December 12.

“The change in market capitalisation is more about RIL underperforming. There are many issues of concern like RIL's low gas output which are worrying investors,” said Mr Shrikant Shetty, Equity Research and Technical Analysis, Unicon Financial Intermediaries. In August, Coal India displaced Reliance as the most valued company. Two days later, Reliance was further displaced by ONGC, which claimed the second spot.

The fight for the No 1 slot intensified one week later when Reliance reclaimed the top position, pushing Coal India to the third spot. On August 26, RIL was pushed to the second spot by ONGC, but it regained the top position a week later. “In the current business scenario, there could be a further rejig in positions and RIL could slip lower down in the ranks. This can be possible in the short term but in the long term RIL could regain its standing as the largest in terms of market capitalisation,” said Mr Shetty.

At the end of the last trading session of the year, TCS closed at Rs 1161.25, down 0.35 per cent from the previous close. RIL closed at Rs 692.90, down 2.81 per cent on the BSE.

> priya.s@thehindu.co.in

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