Consider Hindustan Lever, the numero uno in terms of market capitalisation. Not only did it maintain its number one rank, but in the process it also increased the value of its company by a cool Rs 14,898 crore. Or ITC, which retained the second slot, while adding Rs 6,111 crore to its market cap. In spite of operating in depressed commodity markets, Reliance Industries beat MTNL for the number 3 spot, although the company's value, as measured by the stockmarket, decreased by Rs 4,334 crore over the year.

Some spectacular growth stories of 1998-99 were in the software stocks. Satyam added a whopping Rs 3,580 croreto its market cap, an increase of 559 per cent over its March 31, 1998, level of a mere Rs 640 crore. Pentafour Software notched up growth in market cap of 199 per cent. Infosys, growing on a larger base, added Rs 1,758 crore to its market cap during the year.It would be a mistake, however, to ascribe all the bullishness merely to software. Consider Zee Telefilms, which grew by 261 per cent, or Britannia, which went up by 211 per cent. Several pharma companies also recorded sizzling growth rates, reflecting the fundamentals of the P-S-F (pharma, software, FMCG) companies.

Conversely, some of the biggest falls in market cap were registered by Gujarat Alkalies (-71.4 per cent), IFCI (-68.6 per cent), IDBI (-65.3 per cent), GSFC (-62 per cent), Zuari Industries (-61.4 per cent) and Bombay Dyeing (58.3 per cent), all operating in traditional, and currently depressed, industries. Now for the details of the study. In all, 146 A group shares have been considered. The share prices have been computed from theofficial price lists of the Bombay Stock Exchange. March-end quotations have been considered for the study.

The top five in terms of market capitalisation in the descending order in March, 1999, are Hindustan lever (Rs 49,711 crore), ITC (Rs 23,633 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs 12,153 crore), SBI (Rs 11,231 crore) and MTNL (Rs 11,126 crore).

The top five five in market capitalisation in descending order, in March 1998, were Hindustan lever (Rs 34,813 crore), ITC (Rs 17,522 crore), MTNL (Rs 16,556 crore), Reliance Industries (Rs 16,487 crore) and SBI (Rs 14,842 crore). Thus, Hindustan lever and ITC have retained same place in both the years. Of the top five companies in March 1999, the highest rate of growth in market capitalisation was recorded in the case of Hindustan Lever (70 per cent).

The bottom five, in ascending order, in terms of market capitalisation in March 1999, are Garware Polyester (Rs 23 crore), Garware-Wall (Rs 37 crore), Gujarat Alkali on (Rs 68 crore) Hindustan Motors (Rs 71 crore)and Kesoram Industries (Rs 73 crore). On the other hand, the bottom five companies, according to market capitalisation, in March 1998, were Garware-Wall (Rs 42 crore), Garware Polyester (Rs 48 crore), Ceat (Rs 84 crore), Hindustan Motors (Rs 138 crore) and Voltas (Rs 147 crore). Garware Polyester, Garware-Wall and Hindustan Motor were among the bottom five companies in both the years.

Of the 146 companies, the highest rate of growth of market capitalisation was recorded by Satyam Computer (559.4 per cent), followed by Zee Teleflims (261.7 per cent), Britannia (211 per cent), Rhone Poulenc(206 per cent), Pentafour (199.4 per cent), E Merck (192.1 per cent), Digital Equipment (173.2 per cent), Novartis India (166.4 per cent), Dabur (162.1 per cent) and Burroughs Wellcome (156.1 per cent) while negative rates were witnessed in Gujarat Alkalies (-71.4 per cent), IFCI (68.6 per cent), IDBI (-65.3 per cent), GSFC (-62.0 per cent), Zuari Industries (-61.4 per cent), Bombay Dyeing (58.3 per cent), Kesoram (-57.6per cent), Century Textiles (-56.7 per cent), Nocil (-56.2 per cent) and Essar Steel (55.8 per cent).

Industry-wise market capitalisation (see table on Page 10) suggests that the chemicals industry ("other than fertilisers and chemicals") ranks number one with a market capitalisation of Rs 66,132 crore (22.2 per cent share in total) in 1999. The market capitalisation of this industry increased by 24.7 per cent to Rs 66,132 or in March 1999 from the level of Rs 53,024 crore in March 1998. Prominent among other industries ranked in descending order during March 1999 are Pharmaceuticals (Rs 30,963 crore), PSUs (Rs 30,754 crore), auto and ancillaries (Rs 23,076 crore), diversified (Rs 21,703 crore) and banks (Rs 17,563 crore). Overall, the ratio of market capitalisation to equity capital declined marginally by 0.8 per cent from 1,627.0 per cent in March 1998 to 1,613.2 per cent in March 1999.

Significant positive changes in the ratio can be seen in the case of software (369.7 per cent), pharmaceuticals(66.1 per cent) and food prod ucts 61.7 per cent.