After the 3:4 merger with Pond's, HLL's equity would rise by around Rs 22.4 crore there by boosting the market capitalisation by another Rs 4550 crore at the current market price of Rs 2030. Hindustan Lever's market capitalisation at the current price of Rs 2030 has already crossed the Rs 40,000 crore mark, which is around 8-10 per cent of the total market capitalisation.

Apart from the equity of Rs 22.4 crore, Pond's has brought in huge reserves of Rs 169 crore, which would boost HLL's book value from the current level of Rs 63 to Rs 65.5 per share.

HLL's rise from Rs 1700 in mid-January to the current level of Rs 2033 hasalready boosted its weight in the index from around 19.3 per ecnt to the current level in the Sensex and from 17.97 per cent to present weight in Nifty.

On Wednesday results expectations drove HLL beyond the Rs 2000-mark to its all-time high of Rs 2033 on the BSE. The company's boarad is meeting on February 15 to take up the full year results. Defying recession, the company is likely to report a 25-28 per cent growth in net profit.