The method of cell mappings has been developed as an efficient tool for the global study of dynamical systems. One of them, the generalized cell mapping (GCM), describes the behavior of a system in a probabilistic sense, and is essentially a Markov chain analysis of dynamical systems. Since the largest Lyapunov exponent is widely used to characterize attractors of dynamical systems, we propose an algorithm for that quantity by the GCM. This allows us to examine the persistent groups of the GCM in terms of their Lyapunov exponent, thereby connecting them with their counterparts in point mapping systems.