Chinese oil company-giant re-emerged as the largest in the world with its market capitalization.
Every year in June, the newspaper The Financial Times publishes top FT 500, which is the rating of the largest capitalized companies in the world. A month before the publication of the rating, it became apparent that despite the crisis and the fall in oil prices, the fight for the championship will be the oil industry: the Chinese governmental PetroChina and American private company Exxon Mobil.
On May 25, the world’s news agencies reported that the capitalization of PetroChina on the Shanghai Stock Exchange rose by three per cent and reached the mark of the 336 billion dollars. At first glance in this mediocre news there was only one thing interesting: namely, the three per cent was the lacking number for the Chinese company in order to become the most expensive company in the world.
The point is that the main competitor of the Chinese company – Exxon Mobil – cost 335.9 billion dollars as a result of trades on Friday, May 22. On May 25, they were not able to beat the record of PetroChina: the tender in the United States on that day did not take place because of the national holiday – the Day of Remembrance.
On May 26, shares of PetroChina in Shanghai went down by 0.08 percent. Thus, the investors of the American company had only to slightly increase the value of Exxon Mobil in order to regain its title of the largest in the world. And so it happened: on May 26, Exxon Mobil shares went up by 1.42 per cent, while the capitalization became 340.65 billion dollars.
Who will be put on the first place of FT 500 is already known, as the classification is drawn up by market capitalization by March 31. If this time no surprises happen and reporting date will not be changed, then ExxonMobil will be the first.
Since the results of bidding for major world markets are published in real time, we have an opportunity to see how the capitalization of the largest companies has changed in the world during the past year. Thus, despite the fall in oil prices, their places among the largest companies retain not only Exxon Mobil and PetroChina, but also another oil and gas corporation – Royal Dutch Shell.
Another candidate for the considerable drop in the ranking became “the bronze prize-winner” of last year – General Electric. During not the whole year the capitalization of company decreased from 370 to 139 billion dollars. So this time, General Electric will almost certainly not be in the first three. True, although the almost all American manufacturer in the world (from light bulbs to aircraft engines) should not worry: in 2009 it headed one of the most prestigious rankings – Global 2000, which is compiled on the basis of market capitalization, revenues, assets and profits.