?ITC helps HDFC Bank to become third most valued company on BSE

Shares of ITC rallied nearly 4 per cent in Thursday’s trade, helping the FMCG giant briefly pip HDFC Bank to become the third most valued company on BSE.

The FMCG stock rose 3.78 per cent intraday to a high of Rs 279.90. At this price, the company hit a market capitalisation of Rs 3.4 lakh crore, which helped the company steal the third spot on the m-cap ladder from HDFC Bank (Rs 3.30 lakh crore), which was trading with a negative bias at that point.

But the trend reversed soon after. At Rs 3,30,679.14 crore, the market value of ITC just before noon was less than HDFC Bank’s Rs 3,31,425.55 crore m-cap.

ITC has risen 13.24 per cent in the past one month compared with HDFC Bank’s 8.24 per cent rise.

The outperformace has much to do with 4.5 per cent jump ITC saw on Wednesday after the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced a less-than-expected 6 per cent hike in excise duty for FY18, compared with 10 per cent anticipated by Dalal Street.

Edelweiss Securities said, "Union Budget 2017-18 sprung a positive surprise with mere 6 per cent hike in excise duty on cigarettes as against 8-10 per cent expectations. This is the lowest hike in past six years."

With per capita consumption 1/18th China's, cigarette opportunity in India remains attractive over long term, the brokerage noted.