Consider Wipro, the numero uno in terms of market capitalisation. Despitemaintaining its number one rank, it decreased the value of its company by acool Rs 92,864 crore. Or Hindustan Lever, which retained the second slot,while losing Rs 13,335 crore of its market cap. In spite of operating indepressed commodity markets, Reliance Industries beat Infosys Technologiesfor the number three spot, with the company's value, as measured by thestock market, increasing by Rs 10,819 crore over the year.

Some dismal stories of the study period were in the IT stocks. Satyam lost awhopping Rs 18,643 crore of its market cap, a decline of 65.64 per cent overits February 29, 2000 level of Rs 28,401 crore. Zee Telefilms' market capdeclined by 86.77 per cent. MTNL, losing on a larger base, lost Rs 8,663crore of its market cap during the study period.

However, it would be a mistake to ascribe all the bearishness merely to ITcompanies. Consider Mahindra & Mahindra, which declined by 66.36 per cent,or Essel Packaging, which declined by 59.25 per cent. Several pharmacompanies also recorded significant decline, reflecting the dismal pictureof the market.

Conversely, some of the biggest increases in market cap were registered byHDFC (51.38 per cent), Nestle India (57.72 per cent), Tata Power (203.64 percent), EIH (53.53 per cent), Raymond (99.14 per cent), GE Shipping (99.71per cent), Gujarat Gas (78.42 per cent), ITC Bhadrachalam (71.49 per cent),Amara Raja Batteries (125.1 per cent) and Esab (62.79 per cent), alloperating in traditional and currently, improved industries.

Now for the details of the study. In all, 139 A-group shares have beenconsidered. The share prices have been computed from the official pricelists of the BSE. Budget day quotations have been considered for the study.The top five in terms of market capitalisation in the descending order onFebruary 28, 2001, were Wipro (Rs 58,276 crore), Hindustan Lever (Rs 50,482crore), Reliance Industries (Rs 43,646 crore), Infosys Technologies (Rs41,406 crore) and Reliance Petro (Rs 34,611 crore).

On the other hand, the top five in market capitalisation in descendingorder, on February 29, 2000 were Wipro (Rs 1,51,140 crore), Hindustan Lever(Rs 63,817 crore), Infosys Technologies (Rs 57,590 crore), Zee Telefilms (Rs53,401 crore) and Reliance Petro (Rs 36,514 crore).

Thus, Wipro, Hindustan Lever and Reliance Petro have retained the same placein both the years. Of the top five companies on February 28, 2001, thehighest rate of growth in market capitalisation was recorded in the case ofReliance Industries (32.96 per cent).

The bottom five, in ascending order, in terms of market capitalisation onFebruary 28, 2001, are Supreme Industries (Rs 89.23 crore), Bausch & Lomb(Rs 95.59 crore), Atlas Copco (Rs 95.66 crore), Esab (Rs 98.42 crore) andCrisil (Rs 101.71 crore).

On the other hand, the bottom five companies, according to marketcapitalisation, on February 29, 2000, were Esab (Rs 62.79 crore), AtlasCopco (Rs 113.90 crore), Bausch & Lomb (Rs 126.07 crore), Voltas (Rs 132.20crore) and Amara Raja Batteries (Rs 135.82 crore). Bausch & Lomb, AtlasCopco and Esab were among the bottom five companies in both the periodsunder consideration.

Of the 139 companies, the highest growth rate of market capitalisation wasrecorded by Tata Power (203.64 per cent), followed by Amara Raja Batteries(125.1 per cent), GE Shipping (99.71 per cent), Raymond (99.14 per cent),Gujarat Gas (78.42 per cent) and ITC Bhadrachalam (71.49 per cent), whilenegative rates were witnessed in Aptech (90.57 per cent), Pentamedia Graphic(88.02 per cent), Zee Telefilms (86.77 per cent), Global Tele-System (80.56per cent), Sterlite Industries (79.44 per cent) and Silverline (78.66 percent).

Industry-wise market capitalisation suggests that the computers (software &hardware) industry group ranks number one with a market capitalisation of Rs1,28,751 crore (25.7 per cent share in total) on February 28, 2001. Themarket capitalisation of this industry group declined by 57.23 per cent toRs 1,28,751 crore on February 28, 2001 from Rs 3,01,049 crore on February29, 2000.

Other industries ranked in descending order on February 28, 2001, weremiscellaneous group (Rs 81,333 crore), other chemical products (Rs 60,636crore), diversified (Rs 56,298 crore), PSU (Rs 41,729 crore),pharmaceuticals (Rs 35,290 crore), banks (Rs 27,969 crore), NBFCs (Rs 17,121crore), automobiles (Rs 14,444 crore) and food products (Rs 10,647 crore).Highest decline in market cap was observed in the case of computer (hardware& software) (57.23 per cent), followed by tyres & tubes (47.45 per cent),miscellaneous (39.87 per cent), automobiles (32.76 per cent), PSU (26.57 percent), pharmaceuticals (22.77 per cent), electrical goods (22.57 per cent),engineering others (22.06 per cent), cotton textiles (17.58 per cent), NBFC(16.9 per cent) and cement & products (15.04 per cent).

An opposite trend can be seen in the case of paper & products (57.09 percent), hotels (28.06 per cent), food products (22.29 per cent), electricity(14.36 per cent), banks (12.09 per cent) and diversified (12.12 per cent).Overall, the ratio of market capitalisation to equity capital declined by34.64 per cent from 3126.37 per cent on February 29, 2000, to 2043.28 percent on February 28, 2001. Significant positive changes can be seen in thecase of hotels, paper & products and food products.