Wipro Ltd, Asian Paints Ltd, HCL Technologies Ltd and nine other Indian firms found a place among the world’s 500 most valuable companies in 2021, while ITC Ltd dropped out of the Hurun Global 500 list.
iPhone maker Apple Inc. retained its position as the world’s most valuable company, with a 15% increase in market capitalization to $2.4 trillion. The next five most valuable companies are Microsoft, Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook and Tencent, and they have also remained unchanged from last year.
Reliance Industries Ltd topped the list of Indian companies with a market capitalization of $188 billion. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd with $164 billion in market value and HDFC Bank Ltd with $113 billion followed.
Reliance, however, dropped two places to the 57th spot, although its valuation rose by 11% during the period. The new entrants, Wipro, Asian Paints, and HCL Technologies, featured at 457th, 477th and 498th spots.
The cut-off for this year’s list rose 15% to $36.6 billion. Hurun Global 500 is a list of the 500 most valuable non-state-controlled companies. The cut-off date for the latest list was July 15.
Country-wise, India rose to the ninth position with a dozen companies on the list. Mumbai had the highest representation, with eight city-based companies, followed by two from Bengaluru and one each from Noida and New Delhi. Financial services and software and services led the way, with four companies, followed by telecommunications with two firms.
Globally, the US led the list with 243 companies, up by one, followed by China 47, down by four. Japan was third with 30, and the UK was fourth with 24..
“This year, the Hurun Global 500 added $8.5 trillion of value on the back of a maturing of the digital economy and new technologies, especially in healthcare, post-Covid, but also helped by trillion-dollar economic stimulus packages, which have helped drive up stock markets to record heights, particularly in the US,” said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of Hurun Report.
The top 10 companies were worth $12.2 trillion, up by $1.8 trillion, representing 21% of the total value of the Hurun Global 500. As many as seven of the top 10 firms are from the US, while Alibaba dropped two places to ninth and chipmaker TSMC broke into the top 10.
Notably, US-based Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Apple added $1.5 trillion of value, 18% of the entire list.
As many as 48 companies broke into the Hurun Global 500 this year. This was led by Chinese video-sharing platform Kuaishou, which shot straight into a top 200 place, and South Korean e-commerce platform Coupang straight in at 237th place. Other notable winners included German biotech company BioNTech, developer of a Covid vaccine with Pfizer and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.
On the flip side, 48 companies dropped out of the list. Notable names included New York Life Insurance that saw profits drop by half, while furniture retailer IKEA reported a 29% fall in operating profit due to the pandemic.
By growth, metals & mining led with 56% increase in value on the back of a surge in copper and iron ore prices, followed by energy up 31%, on the back of a 61% increase in the price of oil, and media & entertainment up 28%. However, hospitality was down 17%.
Traditional carmakers saw a resurgence, leading the autos sector to add 29% in value, with Toyota Motors up 57% to $292 billion and Volkswagen up 79% to $150 billion. Tesla was still the most valuable car company in the world, up by $75 billion to $621 billion.
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