Market wealth: Tatas beat Ambanis

Tatas may not be known for being on the stock-based rich lists, but changing market dynamics have led to the salt-to-software conglomerate overtaking the combined market wealth of the two Ambani groups put together.

The share prices have been tumbling in recent past for both the Reliance groups, led by the billionaire brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani, and the analysts put the blame on a string of controversies surrounding them for many months now.

On the other hand, a host of Tata group firms have grown stronger, in terms of stock market valuation, while shrugging off an overall bearish sentiments in the broader market and even some controversies related to them.

In the process, the stock market wealth of the entire Tata group has grown to close to Rs 4,40,000 crore (Rs 4.4 trillion) -- highest for any corporate house and bigger than the combined figure of the two Ambani groups together at about Rs 3,67,000 crore (Rs 3.67 trillion).

This marks a sharp reversal of the things seen about an year ago, when Tatas were smaller than the Mukesh Ambani group alone.

Tatas have about 30 listed companies, while the Mukesh Ambani group has only two.

As per the latest market value of individual groups, Tatas rank on the top, followed by Mukesh-led Reliance group at second position with about Rs 2,85,000 crore (Rs 2.85 trillion).

The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (R-ADAG), which ranked third after the Mukesh-led RIL group and Tatas a year ago, does not figure even among the top 10 groups now.

In the past one year, R-ADAG's market wealth has plunged by over Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion) to close to Rs 82,000 crore (Rs 820 billlion) now.

The Mukesh-led group's valuation has also fallen by about Rs 73,000 crore (Rs 730 billion), but that of Tatas has grown by more than Rs 1,00,000 crore (Rs 1 trillion) in the same period.

The Tata companies that have added significant market wealth in the past one year include TCS , Tata Motors , Tata Steel , Titan, Tata Coffee , Tata Chemicals and Rallis.

On the other hand, all the companies of the two Ambani groups, barring the smallest of them Reliance Broadcast Network , have lost market value since July last year.

In the MDA group, Reliance Industries has lost about Rs 72,000 crore (Rs 720 billion), while the only other listed firm Reliance Industrial Infra Ltd has also lost about Rs 650 crore.

Among ADAG firms, the losses are about Rs 21,000 crore for RCom, about Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion) for R-Power, Rs 14,000 crore (Rs 140 billion) for R-Infra and over Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) for Reliance Capital.

While the Reliance companies have been traditionally known as very aggressive when it comes to the stock market, Tatas have been mostly known as conservatives on this front.

Investors have historically preferred Reliance stocks for wealth creation, but situation is changing drastically as both Ambani groups are giving below-market returns.

Amid the dwindling investor interest in Reliance stocks, Tatas have not been the only beneficiaries but a whole lot of groups known to be professionally-run have also gained.

These include the likes of the Birla, Mahindra, HDFC, Adani, Bharti, L&T, Jindal and Bajaj groups, experts said.

"Reliance stocks are more controversial at the moment, whereas others like HDFC or Mahindra groups are not," Religare Securities Executive VP (Retail Research) Rajesh Jain said.

"Moreover, a weak stock is more prone to get affected by any negative news. That implies to RIL and ADAG stocks. RIL has underperformed the market in the past one year," he added.

Way2Wealth's Chief Operating Officer Ambareesh Baliga also said that it was negative set of news playing spoilsport for the ADAG stocks.

"For RIL, it was the lower gas production at the KG-D6 basin which has discouraged the investors," Baliga said