09 July 2008

RIL tops list of private sector Fortune 500 firms in India

RIL tops list of private sector Fortune 500 firms in India

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries has emerged as the top Indian private company on the latest Fortune 500 Global list, where the country's presence has grown to seven firms with a debut by Tata Steel.

The list, released by the US business magazine Fortune today, includes two private (RIL and Tata Steel) and five public sector companies from India, topped by Indian Oil Corp (IOC), and including BPCL, HPCL, ONGC and SBI. IOC is the top-ranked Indian company among both private and public sectors at 116th position in the worldwide list, topped by US retail giant Wal-Mart. Besides making its debut at 315th position, Ratan Tata-led Tata Steel has also been named as the company with highest revenue growth of over 353 per cent over the past year.

Tata Steel recorded 17th fastest growth in profit among all the companies globally, Fortune said. RIL, which has been ranked at 30th in terms of revenue growth, has jumped 63 places to grab the 206th rank. SBI has been ranked at 21st place in terms of revenue growth.

RIL is ranked second after IOC among all the Indian companies and is followed by Bharat Petroleum (287), Hindustan Petroleum (290), ONGC(335) and State Bank of India (380). SBI is the seventh biggest climber among all the global companies, while RIL and BPCL have been ranked at 23rd and 50th in terms of gains from the previous year rankings.

Other companies figuring among the ten largest worldwide include Chevron (6th), ING Group (7th), Total (8th), General Motors (9th) and ConocoPhillips (10th). The US continues to have the largest presence with 153 companies, even as the number is down from 169 in the last year. China has 29 companies on the list. Besides seven Indian companies, a number of firms run by Indian-origin people have also made to the list.

These include Nagpur-born Vikram Pandit-led Citigroup at the 17th position, billionaire steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal- promoted ArcelorMittal (39th) and Indra Nooyi-led PepsiCo (184th). Vodafone, whose Indian-origin CEO Arun Sarin is retiring this month, has been ranked 85th. Citigroup has been ranked third among the banks, while SBI is at 54th position. PepsiCo is at third position in the food consumer products ranking. Besides, ArcelorMittal is ranked at the top in metals sector, while Tata Steel is at the 8th position.

Amongst the petroleum refining companies across the world, IOC has been ranked at 18th, RIL at 23rd, BPCL at 28th and HPCL at 29th out of 39 companies from the sector present on the list. ONGC has been ranked at the 7th in the mining and crude oil production space. RIL has also been ranked at 46th in terms of return on assets.
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Source: ET

Sensex gains 615 pts, settles near 14,000

Sensex gains 615 pts, settles near 14,000

Global markets turned buoyant following a sharp fall in crude oil prices, and taking cues, the Indian bulls assembled in full strength as the session opened, and more importantly, stayed on right till the end to guide the benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty to a highly positive close today.

With the Left parties officially parting ways with the ruling coalition following their differences on the Indo - US civilian nuclear deal issue, the uncertainties that had clouded the market came to an end. On expectations that the government will now speed up certain reforms, market participants started picking up stocks in a frenzied manner almost right through the session today.

Stocks, irrespective of sectors or size, had a nice ride up the charts as the mood remained quite upbeat till the end. Realty, bank, power and capital goods stocks sparkled. FMCG, oil, IT, auto and metal stocks, despite turning a bit sticky at times, had a fine run as well. Pharma and consumer durables stocks also closed on a high note.

The Sensex, which opened with a positive gap of over 230 points at 13,581.41 and hit a high of 13,998.48 in late afternoon trade, ended with a thumping gain of 614.61 points or 4.6% at 13,964.26 today. The Nifty recorded a gain of 168.55 points or 4.23% as it settled at 4157.10, a few points down from a high of 4169.40 it touched a few minutes before the closing bell.

Reliance Infrastructure (10.7%) and Jaiprakash Associates (10%) remained high up in the positive territory right through the day. Tata Motors, which rallied sharply in afternoon trade, took the third place in the list with a handsome gain of 7.5%.
ITC closed stronger by 6.8%. Reliance Communications moved up by 6.15%. Tata Consultancy Services, HDFC Bank, BHEL and Reliance Industries gained 5% - 6%. Bharti Airtel ended nearly 5% up at Rs 747.40. Infosys Technologies (4.9%), Grasim Industries (4.85%), DLF (4.85%), ICICI Bank (4.75%), Larsen & Toubro (4.7%), NTPC (4.3%), HDFC (4.2%) and Tata Steel (4.1%) sparkled.

More @ Sensex gains 615 pts, settles near 14,000

Source: www.Sify.com/finance