TCS drives ₹1.54 lakh crore surge in top Indian blue chips
Strong first-quarter earnings from the IT sector and renewed financial stock buying pushed five of India’s ten most valuable companies up by a combined ₹1.54 lakh crore last week, signalling resilience in domestic equities despite global macro headwinds.
Five of India’s top ten most valued companies added a combined ₹1.54 lakh crore in market capitalisation last week. The gains were led by Tata Consultancy Services, which accounted for nearly half the total increase across the benchmark firms. The broader market reflected this positive momentum, with the BSE Sensex rising 582.06 points, or 0.75 per cent, and the NSE Nifty climbing 127.4 points, or 0.52 per cent.
TCS added ₹72,072.3 crore, pushing its valuation to ₹8,20,672.70 crore after its stock posted nearly 10 per cent weekly gains. The rally followed the company’s June-quarter results, which showed a 4.61 per cent increase in net profit to ₹13,349 crore. Crucially for investors, the IT major indicated that demand disruptions caused by the West Asia crisis are easing, with improvements expected in the current quarter.
Financial stocks also drew significant buying interest. ICICI Bank’s valuation surged ₹29,062.06 crore to ₹10,34,441.77 crore, while Bajaj Finance climbed ₹21,946.5 crore to ₹6,57,274.28 crore. State Bank of India added ₹7,338.34 crore, reaching a valuation of ₹9,63,768.78 crore. Reliance Industries, which retained its position as India’s most valuable firm, saw its market cap jump ₹23,884.93 crore to ₹17,95,091.26 crore.
The gains were not universal among the blue chips. Larsen & Toubro suffered the steepest valuation erosion, shedding ₹18,097.72 crore to fall to ₹5,24,840.68 crore. Life Insurance Corporation of India declined by ₹12,080.75 crore, while Bharti Airtel and HDFC Bank dropped ₹7,706.45 crore and ₹7,084.61 crore respectively. Hindustan Unilever rounded out the laggards with a marginal dip of ₹1,221.79 crore.
The divergent performance highlights a market rotating toward sectors with clear near-term earnings visibility. "Indian equity markets ended the week on a firm footing, extending their recovery despite heightened geopolitical tensions, elevated crude oil prices, and persistent uncertainty surrounding the global interest-rate outlook," said Ajit Mishra, SVP of Research at Religare Broking Ltd. He noted that sentiment was specifically underpinned by IT earnings and "renewed buying interest in financial stocks, and resilience in domestic economic fundamentals."
