RIL commanded a market value of Rs 246,995 crore at 0945 hours on the Bombay Stock Exchange, which was higher than any other listed company.

In comparison, the market value of Coal India, which had dethroned RIL to emerge as the country's most-valued firm last week, stood at Rs 244,190 crore at the same time.

Another state-run company, ONGC, was close behind at third position, with a market value of Rs 243,831 crore.

Shares of all three companies was trading in the red today, but the losses were sharper for CIL.

While RIL was down 0.26 per cent at Rs 754.30, ONGC was down 0.62 per cent at Rs 285 and CIL was 2.2 per cent in the red at Rs 386.60.

After reigning as the country's most-valued firm for more than four years, RIL slipped to second position behind CIL last week. Days later, RIL had briefly slipped to the third position after CIL and ONGC on August 19, but managed to regain the second slot by the time the market closed.

Nevertheless, RIL was back on top this morning and marketmen will be keenly watching the three stocks to ascertain whether the market valuation charts undergo further changes.

Interestingly, RIL had toppled state-run ONGC over four years ago to become the country's most-valued firm, but slipped below the two public sector firms in terms of market valuation in intra-day trade last Friday.

A company's market valuation, or market capitalisation, is determined by multiplying its share price by the total number of shares.

CIL and ONGC had been closing the gap on RIL in terms of market valuation for the past few weeks, as RIL's stock has been under selling pressure and the two PSUs have been mostly performing well even in a weak market.