Biocon, the Bangalore-based firm, closed Day One of listing on the bourses with a market value of $1.11 billion.

Thus, Biocon becomes the second company to breast the $1 billion tape on the day of listing. Earlier Bharti Tele-Ventures listed with market cap of $ 1.67 billion.

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Biocon shares closed at Rs 484.35 on Bombay Stock Exchange on Wednesday. The company has a capital base of Rs 50 crore (Rs 500 million) divided into 10 crore equity shares of paid up value of Rs 5 per share each.

Thus the market worth of 10 crore shares at a price of Rs 484.35 comes to Rs 4,843.50 crore ($1.11 billion at a current exchange rate of $1=Rs 43.54).

Meanwhile, the number of companies having market value of more than $1 billion has gone up from 47 on November 27, 2003 to 56 on April 7, 2004. In the list of $1 billion companies, Biocon ranked at No 47.

ONGC leads the pack with a market cap of $27.6 billion, followed by Reliance Industries ($18.4 billion), Indian Oil Corporation ($14 billion), Infosys Technologies ($8.1 billion) and Wipro ($7.6 billion).

Besides these top five companies, the list includes State Bank of India ($7.5 billion), Hindustan Lever ($7.4 billion), Bharti Tele-Ventures ($7.1 billion) and ITC ($6.2 billion).