Market capitalisation is the total market value of a company's outstanding shares — used by SEBI to categorise companies as Large Cap, Mid Cap, or Small Cap for mutual fund mandates.
Market capitalisation = Current share price × Total outstanding shares. SEBI uses this to define fund categories: top 100 companies by market cap = Large Cap; companies ranked 101–250 = Mid Cap; companies ranked 251 and below = Small Cap. AMFI publishes the official large/mid/small cap company list twice a year (January and July). This list determines which stocks qualify for each fund category's mandatory allocation.
Market cap is how much the stock market thinks a company is worth in total. If Reliance Industries has 676 crore shares outstanding and each share costs ₹2,900, Reliance's market cap = ₹19.6 lakh crore. It's the 'total price tag' the stock market puts on the company. SEBI ranks all listed companies by this total price tag — the top 100 become 'large cap companies,' the next 150 become 'mid cap,' and everything below rank 250 is 'small cap.'
Market Cap = Share Price × Number of Outstanding Shares.
SEBI's large/mid/small cap categorisation uses full market cap (all shares, not just free float).
AMFI publishes revised list every January and July.
A company's classification can change — e.g., a mid-cap company that grows can become a large-cap in the next AMFI update.