India's Richie Rich added Rs 4.4 lakh crore to their wealth in 2017

The stupendous 30% surge in stock markets this year has not only given good returns to retail investors who put their money in mutual funds and share portfolios but has also made the richest of Indians even richer.

The most affluent Indians have added $70 billion, or around Rs 4.4 lakh crore, to their net worth, with Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani and Lakshmi Mittal being the biggest gainers among top billionaires.

The only exception to this trend has been Sun Pharma promoter Dilip Shanghvi whose fortune dipped about $955 million year-to-date (as on December 26) in sync with the drop in stock price of the country's biggest drug maker.

According to Bloomberg Billionaires Index data, India has 23 individuals among the world's 500 richest people. In total, these 23 Titans have combined net worth amounting to $231.5 billion now compared to about $161 billion at the end of 2016. Reliance Industries's Mukesh Ambani, the richest among these billionaires has a networth of over $40 billion while Hinduja brothers Prakash and Ashok, who are ranked 23rd, have a networth of $4.58 billion each.

The calendar year 2017 has been marked by a whopping rise in domestic equity inflows that have chased the biggest of companies, obviously owned by the country's richest. Shares clearly remain the biggest way to generate wealth, even though alternative assets like Bitcoins have delivered shocking returns.

As a result, the already deep pockets of 60-year old Ambani have got deeper. His $22.7-billion fortune in 2016 has topped $40 billion in just about 12 months as looks like Reliance Industries's disruptive moves involving telecom firm Jio are paying off.

The seventh-richest Indian, Gautam Adani, ranks below Shanghvi, Shiv Nadar, Pallonji Mistry and Lakshmi Mittal in wealth, but 2017 has been kind to him with a sharp $5.6 billion growth in his networth, putting him as the second biggest gainer among the billionaires.

Steel tycoon Mittal and Wipro czar Azim Premji have both enjoyed about $5 billion rise in wealth this year.

R K Damani is an interesting entrant in yearly the gainers list, after the self-made stock market wizard's ownership value in retailer Avenue Supermarkets spurted post the dream IPO and stock price run. Avenue Supermarkets's share price has zoomed 287% since, helping Damani get a networth gain of $4.85 billion in 2017 alone.

Other top billionaires like Tata Sons's influential shareholder Pallonji Mistry, banking sultan Uday Kotak, real estate giant K P Singh, Aditya Birla Group boss Kumar Birla, Sun Group's Kalanithi Maran and Eicher Motors's chief Vikram Lal have seen their respective networth rise between $2 billion and $4 billion in 2017, data shows.

Billionaires who gained between $1 billion and $2 billion this year include Bajaj Auto chairman Rahul Bajaj, largest shareholder of Piramal Enterprises Ajay Piramal, HCL Technologies founder Shiv Nadar, Shree Cement boss Benu Gopal Bangur, Motherson Sumi proprietor Vivek Sehgal and Zydus Cadila head Pankaj Patel.