India's energy-to-telecommunications group Reliance Industries unseated on Friday energy powerhouse Exxon as the second most valuable company in the world -- and 46th globally on market cap, based on stock market data. On the top spot is Saudi Arabia's oil titan, Aramco.
Reliance Industries is India's most valuable firm and has diversified its business ventures, including oil refining. The conglomerate's market value reached $189 billion (14.1 trillion Indian rupees) on Friday, beating Exxon's market capitalization which early Friday was pegged at $185.58 billion, Indian media reports disclosed.
Globally, Saudi Aramco has the biggest market cap of $1.75 trillion, followed by Apple ($1.6 trillion), Microsoft ($1.5 trillion), Amazon ($1.48 trillion), and Alphabet ($1.03 trillion).
No Indian company has ever reached a market cap of $189 billion. Besides being larger than ExxonMobil in market cap, Reliance is also bigger than Chevron which has a market cap of roughly $169 billion, including the likes of Unilever, Oracle, Bank of China, Royal Dutch Shell, BHP Group, and SoftBank.
Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani breezed past Steve Ballmer to become the fifth richest man in the world with a net value of around $77.4 billion, Bloomberg reported. Reliance is the 10th biggest conglomerate in terms of market cap in Asia. China's Alibaba Group is at seventh spot, globally.
Reliance, which controls the largest refinery complex, traded 3.98 percent higher at Rs 2,143 in Mumbai trading late Friday, amassing $8 billion to lift its market value, while Exxon Mobil shed around $1 billion. Shares of Reliance have rallied 43 percent this year compared with a nearly 40 percent decline in Exxon's shares as refiners worldwide are beset with a loss in fuel demand.
Shares of the Indian energy behemoth have been advancing in recent weeks after tech giants like Google poured huge money into Reliance's Jio Platforms, while retail powerhouse Amazon is said to be looking at acquiring a share of 9.9 percent in Reliance Retail.
In the past five weeks, Reliance Industries has generated almost $40 billion to add to its market value, according to The Economic Times. During the last 14 trading sessions alone, the group's shares skyrocketed so much that they secured $29 billion more to the firm's market cap.
While the energy venture accounted for approximately 80 percent of Reliance's sales in the year ended March 31, Ambani's plan to grow the company's digital and retail units have helped him secure $20 billion into the Jio Platforms Ltd. arm. That as a result helped amass $22 billion more to Ambani's fortune this year.
