Infosys hits $100-bn market cap as shares more than triple since Covid crash

Infosys Ltd, India’s second-largest software services exporter, has become the fourth Indian company to touch the milestone of $100-billion in market capitalisation.

The development comes almost 28 years after the Bengaluru-based IT company listed its shares on stock exchanges in June 1993, following its initial public offering in February of that year.

Shares of Infosys hit a record high of Rs 1,755.60 apiece on Tuesday on the BSE, pushing its market value to Rs 7.44 trillion ($100 billion). The shares, however, cooled off a bit subsequently and were trading around Rs 1,740 apiece on Wednesday morning.

The milestone came thanks to the company’s shares gaining more than 90% over the past year, from the levels of around Rs 900 apiece in August-September 2020. In fact, the shares have more than tripled from the lows of Rs 511 in March last year when stock markets crashed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Indeed, the broader markets have also doubled since crashing in March last year with the 30-stock BSE benchmark Sensex crossing 56,000 on Wednesday.

Infosys joins three other companies in the super-exclusive club. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries has a market capitalisation of about $140 billion, Infosys’ bigger rival Tata Consultancy Services is valued around $115 billion and HDFC Bank has a market value of nearly $100 billion.
Infosys is followed by Hindustan Unilever, HDFC Ltd, ICICI Bank, Bajaj Finance, State Bank of India and Wipro.

HUL, ranked fifth, has a market cap of Rs 6,19,633 crore while HDFC is valued around Rs 4,88,354 crore and ICICI Bank a tad lower at Rs 4,80,553.68 crore.