Reliance, Bharti Group, Aditya Birla Lead as Most Conglomerates Gain in 2025

Indian markets have been volatile throughout the year 2025; however, the Indian Conglomerates didn’t forget to rise above the uncertain markets. During the calendar year, 8 out of the top 10 conglomerates in the country delivered significant returns, which led the market capitalisation of these stocks to increase by over 8% to ₹130lakh crore, as of 15 December 2025. 

This is quite contrary to the overall market volatility for the period when the benchmark indices were falling sharply, FIIs were selling heavily and valuations were sky high, and the companies even struggled to report good earnings. So, what drove these conglomerates to deliver such gains? Let’s try to find out. 

Top Indian Conglomerates Performance 

Only two of the total ten conglomerates delivered a negative return over 2025, while the remaining 8 witnessed a significant rise. 

Top Performers 

Amongst the top conglomerate performances, there is the Reliance Group or Mukesh Ambani group of companies, whose combined market cap gains rose by 24.4% from ₹18.6 lakh crore to ₹23.1 lakh crore during 2025. This is the second-highest gainer, mainly driven by Reliance Group’s energy, telecom, and retail business segments’ growth. With the GST cuts, the stock gained significantly from October and rose around 14% until now, while it witnessed around a 12% increase between January and September. 

The biggest gainer is the Bharti Group with a 29.5% rise in the market capitalization from ₹11.3 lakh crore to ₹14.6 lakh crore. Bharti Airtel stocks alone surged by 31% during the period, while other companies within the group, such as Bharti Hexagon and Indus Towers, also added significantly to the rally, rising over 21% and 15% respectively. 

Aditya Birla Group posted gains of around 22% with Vodafone Idea shares being the top performers, rising around a whopping 128% until now this year. Aditya Birla Capital and Hindalco Industries also surged significantly by around 105% and 42% respectively. However, only 4 out of 10 companies of this group witnessed positive returns, and thus these massive returns were dragged by the other 6 companies, which witnessed declining returns during the period. For instance, Aditya Birla Fashion declined 68%, while Aditya Birla Money declined 43% and Aditya Birla Fashion Retail dipped over 33%. 

Bajaj Group’s story is similar to that of Aditya Birla Group, as the overall group stock rose over 22% as well, with Bajaj FinServ delivering over 50% return and Bajaj Finance over 38%. However, Bajaj Projects tanked by 38%, along with Bajaj Electricals by 37% and Bajaj Hindustan Sugar by 35% cancelling out most of the gains generated by the finance companies of Bajaj. 

Laggers 

Now coming to the laggers, which are the Tata Group and the ITC Group. Tata Group’s total market cap across 24 listed companies tanked around 8.2% during the period, which is mainly driven by a 21% dip in TCS prices. However, TCS wasn’t alone, as Tata Chemicals, Tejas Network, Nelco, Tata Technologies, Orient Hotels, and others also joined to drag. 

Coming to the ITC Group, the total market cap fell by 15% approximately owing to sluggish Agri business growth, rising tobacco costs, and massive competition affecting the margins. 

Top 10 Conglomerates Performance 

Frontline Indices Beat Broader Market Indices 

With the uptick in the overall performance of the top Indian conglomerates, the frontline indices gained and outperformed the broader market indices. Indian equity market frontline indices such as Nifty 50 and Sensex gained around 8% and 9% respectively until 17 December 2025 since the beginning of the year. While the BSE Midcap index is down by around 1.4% and the BSE smallcap index by 9.45% during the period. 

Wrapping Up 

The volatility in the equity market is one of the primary causes for these top Indian conglomerates to shine, as the broader markets are highly sensitive to volatility. During tough times, the blue-chip companies offer a cushion of safety as they are less affected by market fluctuations. However, one also needs to dig deeper, as within each of these conglomerates, there are only a few companies that are shining and outperforming, while others are trying to pull them down. 

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Source: https://www.moneycontrol.com

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