TCS market cap breaches $100 billion: Charting Tata software giant's 14-year journey on Indian bourses

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the country’s biggest software services exporter, has created history by becoming the first Indian listed company to cross the celebrated $100 billion market capitalisation milestone, or Rs 6,62,726 crore, on the BSE, in intra-day trade, on Monday morning. The TCS scrip  breached the Rs 3,500 rupee ($52.87) per share mark on Monday for the first time, reaching $100 billion in market capitalisation. Shares of the company opened at Rs 3,429 on Monday, rising 4.39 percent to hit an intra-day high of Rs 3,557 on the BSE. Following the uptick in the counter, the market capitalisation of the company swelled to Rs 6,80,912.10 crore ($103 billion). [caption id=“attachment_4387049” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Logo of TCS. Reuters image[/caption] TCS listed on the bourses fourteen years ago, on 25 August, 2004 at a 16.2 percent premium,  at Rs 987.50, against an issue price of Rs 850. On listing day, the stock surpassed the market cap of rival, and former bellwether, Infosys, by Rs 6,146 crore. On 25 August 2004, TCS had a market cap of Rs 47,232 crore while Infosys’ was Rs 41,086 crore. The gap between the two IT majors’ market cap has widened from Rs 6,146 crore in August 2004 to Rs 4,21,395 crore now. Between 25 August 2004 and 23 April 2018, TCS provided a whopping 1,341 percent return to the investor, while Infosys’ figure stands at 520 percent. The benchmark BSE Sensex recorded a 579 percent rise during this period. At Monday’s high price, TCS’s market cap stood at Rs 6,80,912 crore while Infosys’ market cap was Rs 2,59,517 crore. The chart clearly shows that, barring a 30-month period,  TCS’ market cap has always been ahead of that of Infosys’. Infosys logged a higher market cap from January 2008 to June 2010. In October 2008, at Rs 52,595 crore, TCS’s market cap was lower by Rs 26,505 crore as compared to Infosys’ market cap of Rs 79,099 crore. But, July 2010 onwards, TCS’s market cap has been racing ahead of its rival and the gap between the two IT majors is now seen rising by the day. The Tata group flagship, which contributes around 85 percent of the group’s profit, reported a revenue growth of 8.2 percent at Rs 32,075 crore for the three month period to 31 March 2018. In dollar terms, the company reported its highest revenue growth in 14 quarters at 11.7 percent. While both software majors reported a record revenue in fiscal 2018, their revenue growth was still in single digits. TCS logged an annual revenue of Rs 1,23,104 crore and a growth of 4.4 percent. On the other hand, Infosys logged a revenue of Rs 70,522 crore and a growth of three percent. TCS’ net profit declined marginally (1.8 percent) to Rs 25,826 crore, its worst performance in at least eight years for which  _Firstpost_ has data . Infosys reported a modest 11.7 percent rise in annual net profit to Rs 16,029 crore, its best performance over the past three years.