The ITC stock reached a new milestone when the market capitalisation of the stock topped Rs 6 lakh crore on Thursday, making it the sixth most valuable firm on the Indian bourses and closing in the gap with HUL, the only other FMCG giant which features among top 10 most valuable firms in India.

The ITC stock climbed 2.77 per cent on the NSE to end at Rs 492.15 apiece. During the day, the stock hit a lifetime high of Rs 493.7. It was the biggest gainer among both Sensex and Nifty firms on Thursday.

The company’s market capitalisation stood at Rs 613,133.7 crore with a section of analysts expecting that it may have enough steam to surpass HUL by valuation sooner than later.

“HUL is now only 4 per cent higher in market cap than ITC. We expect ITC to soon edge ahead of HUL in terms of market,” Abneesh Roy, executive director (research) at Nuvama Institutional Equities, observed.

The brokerage maintained a ‘buy’ rating on the stock despite it rising by 64 per cent in one year, making it among the best-performing scrip among benchmark equity indices Nifty and Sensex.

“Value unlocking in the hotels business (is) one of the drivers, apart from decent growth in cigarette, FMCG and hotels business,” Roy added.

HUL, which announced muted results on Thursday, closed with a market cap of Rs 635,153.2 crore on the NSE.

ITC’s market cap touched Rs 5 lakh crore on April 21. It added Rs 1 lakh crore heft within three months.

The outperformance of the stock over the last two years — it more than doubled in that period — was preceded by years of lull by way of stock performance.

The scrip first broke into the Rs 300 bracket on May 22, 2017. Since then, it has tested the patience of investors who have been rewarded with an outperformance to the broader indices in the last 24 months.

Meanwhile, the 30-share BSE Sensex jumped 474.46 points, or 0.71 per cent, to settle at its all-time closing high of 67571.90 on Thursday.