India's 10 most valuable companies

The country's top private sector lender, ICICI Bank, made its entry into the list of the top 10 most valuable companies by market capitalisation this week, helped by a sharp rise in banking stocks.

With a market capitalisation (m-cap) of Rs 128,016 crore (Rs 1,280.16 billion), ICICI Bank now features at tenth rank in the list, knocking state-run BHEL out of the prestigious club. It is the eighth most valuable firm in India.

During the past week, ICICI Bank added Rs 10,809.4 crore (Rs 108.094 billion) to its m-cap.

Analysts said a sharp rise in financial stocks during the past week pushed up the m-cap of most banks.

"Banks led from the front on optimism that lending will pick up in a fast-growing Indian economy and that they are well capitalised," a broker said.

Though the rush for banking stocks helped ICICI Bank make an entry into the top-10 club, its rival, HDFC Bank, is still lagging behind and is ranked at thirteenth, whereas mortgage lender HDFC is seventeenth in terms of market capitalisation.
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