Surpassing American software czar Bill Gates, Mexican business tycoon Carlos Slim Helu and famous investment guru Warren Buffett, courtesy the bull run in the stock market, billionaire Mukesh Ambani on Monday became the richest person in the world.

Record-breaking performance by India's stock markets has put the industrialist Mukesh Ambani at the top of a list of the world's richest people. With India's most valued firm Reliance Industries, Reliance Petroleum and Reliance Industrial Infrastructure Ltd, the net worth of Mukesh Ambani rose to $63.2 billion (Rs 2,49,108 crore), making Ambani's wealth total of about Rs 2,49,000 crore includes about Rs 2,10,000 crore from RIL (50.98% stake), Rs 37,500 crore from RPL (37.5%) and Rs 2,100 crore from RIIL (46.23%).

Reliance Industries, which was founded by Mr Ambani's father, Dhirubhai, spans oil, textiles and biochemicals and has annual revenues of $27bn, close to its fellow Indian conglomerate Tata Industries. Mukesh Ambani and his estranged younger brother, Anil, split the group's assets on their father's death in 2002.

The performance of companies owned by both brothers have been equally remarkable in the recent run by the Indian stock market. The Sensex has risen about 39 per cent since it became the third emerging market after China and Russia to surpass $1 trillion in May, helped by economic growth of around 9 per cent a year and a strengthening currency.

Shares in Reliance Industries, which has the heaviest index weighting on the Sensex, have risen by nearly 80 per cent this year. Indeed, Reliance Industries, operator of the world's third-largest refinery, has accounted for about a quarter of the Sensex's gain since it first crossed 10,000 points in February 2006.

In comparison, the net worth of both Gates and Slim is estimated to be slightly lower at around $62.29 billion each, with Slim leading among the two by a narrow margin and Warren Buffett, earlier the third richest in the world, also dropped one position with a net worth of about $56 billion.

The five richest people in the world with their net worth.

1. Mukesh Ambani ($63.2 billion)

2. Carlos Slim Helu ($62.2993 billion)

3. William (Bill) Gates ($62.29 billion)

4. Warren Buffett ($55.9 billion)

5. Lakshmi Mittal ($50.9 billion)


Source: (Times, Independent)