Eleven of India's leading corporates - both from the public and private sectors - figure in the global top 200 emerging market companies of BusinessWeek, based on market capitalisation.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation ranks at number 13 with a market capitalisation of $14.47 billion. This is however, just 30 per cent of the number one in the list, the Hong Kong-based China Mobile with a market cap of $44.9 billion.

Also on the list are Reliance Industries Ltd at number 31, Hindustan Lever Ltd at 39, Indian Oil Corporation at 52, Wipro at 78, State Bank of India at 79, Infosys Technologies at 85, ITC at 89, Ranbaxy at 134, and Housing Development Finance Corporation at 195.

These companies market cap varies from $1.92 billion to $8.86 billion. The weekly international magazine has identified top 200 companies from emerging countries in Southeast Asia, Europe and Latin America.

Investors are homing in on emerging markets as evident by the fact that over $1.7 billion [(Rs 8,000 crore) (Rs 80 billion)] came into the Indian bourses in the last six months of 2003, resulting in the index crossing the 3,600-mark.

Investors are focusing on corporates offering good performance against their global counterparts and their scrips trade at low price earning multiple.

Investor interest has picked up in emerging markets despite the outbreak of SARS and the political uncertainties plaguing the Latin American region.

Many of these companies have offered hefty returns. Return on equity has been as high as 46.7 per cent as in the case of HLL, among the highest in the top 200 companies.

Its counterpart in Indonesia, PT Unilever Indonesia offered investors a return of 52.3 per cent. Many other top 200 companies on this list offer returns on equity in the range of 10-20 per cent.