Consumer company Hindustan Unilever briefly surpassed ITC in market capitalisation. HUL momentarily crossed rival ITC Ltd to become the fourth-largest company on the National Stock Exchange.
Hindustan Unilever's shares surged as much as 2.2 per cent to a record Rs 1,604.50. At Friday's high, HUL's market cap was Rs 3,47,300 crore ($51.01 billion) vs ITC's market cap of Rs 3,47,200 crore.
HUL stock broke above a resistance at Rs 1,595, the 50 per cent Fibonacci projection level of the uptrend from the low of December 23, 2016 to the high of January 30, 2018. The breakout was supported by volume; the stock's 5-day average volume was 97 per cent higher than its 30-day average volume.
A close above Rs 1,595 may lead to gains towards Rs 1,669, the 61.8 per cent projection level. The stock was up 55.5 pct in the last one year as of Thursday, outperforming ITC's nearly 6 per cent gain in the same period. Nifty FMCG index rose 17.4 per cent in the past one year.