Rs 2,00,000 crore market value! Jio Financial shares rally, beat IRFC, JSW Steel in m-cap race

Shares of Jio Financial Services Ltd (JFS), the demerged arm of Reliance Industries, commanded a market capitalisation of over Rs 2,00,000 crore, as the stock hit fresh high on Friday. With this, Jio Financial commanded a market value that beat JSW Steel, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, Indian Railway Finance Corporation Ltd and Varun Beverages Ltd, among others. It was a few thousand crores away from Adani Power's market value.

JFS shares climbed 14.50 per cent to hit a record high of Rs 347 on BSE. The stock later traded at Rs 330.70, up 9.12 per cent. At this price, JFS was valued at Rs 2,10,325.47 crore against its previous day's market value of Rs 1,92,536.28 crore.

This was higher than IRFC's m-cap of Rs 2,01,516.36 crore. This stock gained 1.38 per cent to Rs 154.20. The JFS m-cap also beat market values of HAL (Rs 2,04,712.03 crore), JSW Steel (Rs 2,01,982.27 crore) and Varun Beverages Ltd (Rs 1,96,344.77 crore). Jio Financial, meanwhile, was trailing Adani Power's m-cap of Rs 2,15,217.19 crore.

Jio Financial shares are up over 40 per cent in 2024 so far. This is even as the NBFC has denied reports of engaging with One 97 Communications (Paytm) for acquisition of its payments bank.  Jio Financial is a holding company, which is looking to operate its financial services business through its consumer-facing subsidiaries Jio Finance Ltd (JFL), Jio Insurance Broking Ltd (JIBL), and Jio Payment Solutions Ltd (JPSL).

JFS has a joint venture Jio Payments Bank Ltd (JPBL). 

"With the partnership with Blackrock for the AMC business, we expect the AUM in FY24E post-license approval and product launch to be around INR 23.3 Bn given the industry opportunities, brand equity, attraction towards the capital market, and the right choice of product basket," KRChoksey Shares and Securities said in a note in January.

The brokerage had a target of Rs 290 on the stock. At Rs 331.80 level in Friday's trading, the JFS stock has beaten that target comprehensively.  The stock in fact made a all-time high of Rs 347 earlier today. Meanwhile, Reliance Industries also hit its record high of Rs 2,989.40 on BSE. Recently, the Mukesh Ambani flagship became the first Indian company to command a m-cap of Rs 20 lakh crore. On Friday, RIL commanded a m-cap of Rs 20,09,882.58 crore.

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