The ongoing bull run in base metals has driven India’s largest steel maker Tata Steel back to the marquee league of companies with a market capital of over Rs 1 lakh crore.

Tata Steel’s market capital (M-Cap) stood at Rs 1.03 lakh crore at the close of trading hours on Thursday on the BSE, while on the NSE, it achieved this feat during intra-day trade when it was traded at the day’s highest level at Rs 863.05. The Tata Steel stock achieved this milestone once again in the last 13 years.

It had reached this level earlier in 2008. The counter clocked a trading volume of 3.68 crore shares and a turnover of Rs 3,103 crore on the NSE but closed with an M-Cap of Rs 96,754 crore.

Metal stocks were so much in demand on Thursday that the top traded stocks on the NSE included JSW Steel at Rs 505 (up 7.91 per cent), Hindalco at Rs 348.30 (up 6.56 per cent) and Tata Steel at Rs 858.90 (up 5.80 per cent).

Riding on the stellar performance of these stocks, the Nifty Metal index overran the benchmark Nifty by a wide margin. Nifty gained 177 points (up 1.20 per cent) to close at 14,867, while the Nifty Metals index shot up 212 points (up by 5.33 per cent) to close at 4,189.15. It was the top performer among all the sectoral indices on the exchange. Out of its 15 constituents, baring one Apollo Tubes, all ended in the green.

The Tata Steel stock has seen a consistent rise so far this year. From the level of Rs 645 on January 1, it has gained 33.18 per cent.

In the past six months, the Tata Steel stock has zoomed 130 per cent, as compared to 28 per cent rise in the S&P BSE Sensex. The recovery in the global and Indian economy has led to a sharp rise in steel demand in India. A spurt in investments in infrastructure and recent policy developments to drive economic growth are expected to drive steel demand in India, says an analyst tracking base metals.