Tata Group overtakes Reliance as India's wealthiest

India's leading conglomerate Tata Group has become the country's wealthiest in terms of market capitalisation, beating the combined wealth of the two Ambani brothers, stock exchange data showed Tuesday. The salt-to-steel Tata Group, led by chairman Ratan Tata, was worth 4.32 trillion rupees ($96 billion) -- the highest for any Indian corporate group. The combined value of the two Reliance groups was 3.46 trillion rupees. Tata and Reliance officials declined to comment on or confirm the data, which is based on an analysis of volume and prices of shares in both the groups' listed companies on Indian exchanges. Tata Group subsidiaries have reported improved earnings in recent years, which has seen the companies value increase, analysts said. They include Tata Motors and its British luxury car brands Jaguar Land Rover, the world's seventh largest steel maker Tata Steel and its unit Corus, which have all turned profitable after the global slowdown. Other units that have added market wealth in the past year include India's largest outsourcer TCS. Group firms Titan Industries, which makes watches, Tata Coffee, Tata Chemicals and agri-business outfit Rallis have also grown. In contrast, Reliance Industries -- the highest weighted stock on the benchmark Sensex index at the Bombay Stock Exchange  has been sluggish for over a year, mainly on concerns over output at its main gas fields. "Investors are jittery over negative news linked to Reliance stocks, which has pulled stocks down," said a dealer with a securities firm from a development bank, who asked to remain anonymous. Mukesh and younger brother Anil Ambani, who runs the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, last year ended a bitter and public feud over the spoils of their late father's vast business empire. The elder Ambani, who handles oil and gas and petrochemicals, is India's richest man, with a fortune estimated at $27 billion, according to Forbes magazine. The younger Ambani, who deals with telecoms, financial services and utilities, is the eighth richest, with a wealth of $8.8 billion. The reclusive Ratan Tata is not on the Forbes billionaire list but is listed 61st amongst the world's most powerful people. Anil Ambani has seen fortunes of his firms dip since he and other group officials met investigators probing a multi-billion-dollar telecom licence fraud that has badly shaken India's government. Some local brokerages have downgraded the Reliance Industries stock, fearing that gas output from the KG D6 basin off India's east coast may not rise sharply in coming months. Two of Anil Ambani's firms, flagship Reliance Communications and subsidiary Reliance Infrastructure have slipped after news last week that these stocks would be removed from the benchmark index of the Bombay Stock Exchange.