India’s energy tycoon Mukesh Ambani has lost his position of Asia’s richest man to Jack Ma after the oil prices fell sharply along with global stocks.
As per the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, persistent concerns over the spread of coronavirus epidemic paired with the recent carnage in the oil markets have erased $5.8 billion from the Reliance Industries Ltd. chief’s net worth.
Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, the founder of e-commerce major Alibaba Group has toppled Ambani to get the top spot in Asia with $44.5 billion. Ambani’s current net worth amounts to $41.8 billion. Globally, Ambani is the 19th richest man just behind Jack Ma who is at the 18th rank.
On Monday, the energy markets fell sharply with oil prices across variants plunging around 30 per cent, the biggest fall since the 1991 Gulf War. The slip is the outcome of Saudi Arabia’s price war against Russia after the OPEC+ failed to reach a consensus to cut crude oil production as part of market stabilisation exercise.
On Monday, Ambani’s RIL witnessed its worst fall in the domestic market in around 10 years as it fell to a low of Rs 1,094.95 per share.
It closed at Rs 1,113.15, lower by Rs 156.90 or 12.35 per cent from its previous close.
Following the plunge in share prices, RIL also lost the crown of the company with the highest market capitalisation in India to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). At the end of trade on Monday, the market capitalisation of RIL stood at Rs 7.05 lakh crore, while that of TCS was Rs 7.40 lakh crore.
Ambani controls almost 42 per cent of Reliance Industries, owner of the world’s largest oil refining complex. The Mumbai-based conglomerate’s other businesses include a 4G wireless network across India.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index is currently being ruled by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos with a net worth of $112 billion, followed by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates with a fortune of $106 billion.
(With input from agencies)