HDFC overtakes ICICI Bank to become 5th largest company by market value

Most market experts view the HDFC-HDFC Bank merger as a positive development for the group.

Nirmal Bang Institutional Equities CEO Rahul Arora told CNBC-TV18 that the vertical merger helps both entities in multiple ways.

"If you look at the cost of funds that HDFC Bank has vis-a-vis HDFC limited, I think this merger will obviously stand HDFC Limited better from a cost of funds standpoint. If you look at HDFC Bank, their mortgage book is not that big and if you have listened to the last few conference calls, they have spoken about growing their mortgage book in a very material way," he said.

Currently, Reliance Industries, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), HDFC Bank, Infosys, HDFC, ICICI Bank, Hindustan Unilever, SBI and Bajaj Finance are the country's most valued listed companies.

Indian equity benchmarks began the week on a strong note amid cautious gains across global markets as investors tracked news flow on the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war closely.

The Nifty50 index crossed the 18,000 mark for the first time in intraday trade in more than 10 weeks. Buying across sectors boosted the headline indices higher, with financial stocks being the biggest movers.