When PetroChina is listed in the Shanghai stock exchange tomorrow, analysts expect that it will surpass ExxonMobil as the world’s largest company by market value, according to this report in the International Herald Tribune:
PetroChina shares, already traded in New York and Hong Kong, are expected to be seized on by a market awash with cash and investors eager for new opportunities. At the close of markets Friday, PetroChina was valued at $460 billion, making it the world’s second-most-valuable company, worth about $26 billion less than Exxon Mobil.
The ebullience with which Chinese investors have dived into the markets of Shanghai and Shenzhen, unleashing the huge savings in personal bank accounts, has made China home to the world’s most expensive companies. China has the biggest bank, insurance company, telecommunications carrier and airline by market value.
By that measure, it has five of the world’s 10 largest companies. [Full text]