NEW DELHI: In less than four months since March, just 10 Indian stocks have created wealth that exceeds the individual GDP (gross domestic product) of 140 nations around the world!

That’s what the bulls do, when conditions are good.

BSE benchmark Sensex rallied over 50 per cent in this period.

The 10 index stocks swelled their combined market value by Rs 17.76 lakh crore, which at the current rupee-dollar exchange rate of 74.8 would equal $237 billion.

This beats Portugal’s 2019 GDP, of $236 billion as estimated by IMF. Peru ($228 billion), Iraq ($224 billion), Greece ($214 billion), New Zealand ($204 billion) and 136 other countries had lesser GDP in 2019 than this figure.

At $109 billion or Rs 8.2 lakh crore, nearly half of these gains, equaling the individual GDPs of Ecuador and Slovakia, was contributed by Reliance Industries alone. RIL shares rose 135 per cent from Rs 934 on March 24 to hit a 52-week high of Rs 2,198 on July 27.

“I would be a buyer of RIL on dips. It is one company that can really hit $500 billion and then $1 trillion market-cap,” said Gurmeet Chadha of Complete Circle Consultants.

TCS ($28 billion), HDFC Bank ($22 billion) and Infosys ($20 billion) also added handsomely to investors’ kitty. The combine m-cap addition of these three companies roughly equalled the GDP of Venezuela, as per IMF estimates.

With such big gains, the top 10 market-cap gainers in the Sensex pack now enjoy a combined market valuation of $669 billion, which if counted as GDP of one country, it would only narrowly miss the Top 20 league.

Switzerland ranks 20th in the world order with $715 billion GDP. Poland comes in at 21st spot at $565 billion.

“Largecap companies offer a lot of safety in this kind of environment. We are also seeing a broader theme playing out, where the big is becoming bigger. This started off after the GST rollout and demonetisation and got a push from the Covid crisis. Largecap companies continue to provide that stability and they will also gain market share and do well,” Mahesh Patil of Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC told ETNOW last week.

At Wednesday’s high of 38,413, BSE Sensex is up 49.83 per cent from its 52-week low of 25,638 hit on March 24. Overall, the BSE market capitalisation during the period jumped by nearly Rs 45 lakh crore to Rs 148 lakh crore from Rs 103 lakh crore on March 24. This roughly means $600 billion wealth creation.

Back-to-back stake sales in telecom venture Jio platforms helped oil-to-telecom major Reliance Industries become a zero net-debt company in June. The company has announced plans to enter the 5G space and is looking to push its retail reach further.

TCS and Infosys have, on the other hand, reported better quarterly earnings, suggesting that the impact of Covid-19, especially on the all-important BFSI space, may not be too big. HDFC Bank is seen among the best plays in the banking sector.

Bharti Airtel and Hindustan Unilever added $11 billion each to their market valuations. Bharti Airtel this week reported a record Rs 15,933 crore loss for June quarter due to AGR provisions, but hoped average revenue per user (ARPU) may keep on growing in what could turn out to be a duopoly market, amid doubts over Vodafone Idea’s ability to remain a going concern.

In the case of Hindustan Unilever, the 8 per cent drop in volume growth in June quarter was in line with expectations, and analysts felt it would stage a sharp rebound once the Covid-19 disruptions end, thanks to its strong brand and deep distribution network.

HCL Technologies, HDFC, ITC and Wipro added $7-9 billion to investor wealth during this period.