India's 10 most-valued firms command higher m-cap than GDP of 6 South Asian economies

India's 10 most-valued stocks including Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS), HDFC Bank Ltd and Infosys Ltd were together worth nearly $1.1 trillion (or Rs 89,97,849 crore) at an exchange rate of Rs 83 ($1 billion: Rs 8,300 crore) this past week, which was higher than the combined annual gross domestic products (GDPs) of India's South Asian neighbours including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Maldives.

Data showed India's top 10 listed companies commanded a market capitalisation of $1.084 trillion against South Asia's annual GDP of $912 billion. IMF estimated Bangladesh's 2023 GDP at $446 billion in its World Economic Forum 2023 report.

The Pakistani economy was estimated at $340.63 billion. While Sri Lanka's 2023 estimates were not available, the economy's size stood at $74.84 billion in 2022, as per the IMF. The size of Nepal's economy was estimated at $41.339 billion, Maldives at $6.97 billion and Bhutan at $2.68 billion.

India's most-valued listed company Reliance Industries was valued at $238 billion, which was higher than the GDPs of Sri Lanka, Nepal, Maldives and Bhutan. At $719 billion, India's top five companies where roughly equal than two bigger South Asian economies of Bangladesh and Pakistan. TCS, India's second-biggest firm by market value and largest IT exporter, had an m-cap of $180 billion. HDFC Bank, which recently merged HDFC business with self, was woth $130 billion. Private lender ICICI Bank was worth $86.48 billion while Infosys was worth $85 billion. State Bank of India, LIC, Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever Ltd and ITC Ltd were other highly-valued listed firms on Dalal Street. The m-cap of these five firms stood in the $61-81 billion range on Friday.

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