In the league of extraordinary companies

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: With the economy in a buoyant mood, the FE-500 registered a 19.54% surge in revenues for 2005-06. However, this can be considered a tad dull if one considers the robust performance in 2004-05. Riding a wave of all round growth, sales of the FE-500 grew at a rate of 19.54% to touch a high of Rs 13,22,783 crore. This was lower than the growth rate of 26.66% recorded in the previous year.

The top ten, in terms of composite ranks, were slow on the draw, if compared to the overall FE-500. The bigwigs saw sales grow at a rate of 18.52%, lower than the collective growth rate of 19.54%. In absolute terms too, the top ten ended 2005-06 with a lower share, with the aggregate sales as a percentage of the total FE-500 actually seeing a marginal decrease from 32.98% in 2004-05 to 32.69% in 2005-06.

Bharti Airtel and Tata Motors were the new entrants to the top ten in 2005-06. The top slot was cornered by Reliance Industries, with ONGC coming up just behind and Indian Oil the second runners-up. The other top fifteen, in descending order of their composite ranks are: National Thermal Power Corp., SAIL, Bharti Airtel, Tata Steel, BHEL, Gail (I), Tata Motors, ITC, BPCL, Larsen & Toubro, Hindalco and Wipro.Within the top ten, a shift in the positions has taken place. Gail (I), seventh in 2004-05, has slipped to the ninth position while Indian Oil Corp. has moved up from fourth to the third spot.

National Thermal Power Corp. and Tata Steel also lost ground going down from third to fourth and sixth to seventh respectively. SAIL, BHEL and Tata Motors have maintained their position from last year. The FE-500 is clubbed in five sub-groups of 100 companies each. Any comparisons made would be more meaningful if done within a particular FE-500 segment.

As against an overall sales growth rate of 19.54% for the overall FE 500, the sub-groups of 100 recorded growth rates of 19.91%, 19.26%, 16.21%, 17.84% and 19.31% respectively during 2005-06.