1. Economics, Financial Analysis and Research
QNB Group
US and GCC companies have outperformed over the last year in the FT Global 500 rankings
The Financial Times has released its latest ranking of the The strong performance of Apple has been driven by a
global Top 500 companies by market capitalisation as at remarkable increase in sales volumes over the last year. In
March 2012. The total market value for all of the particular its latest results indicate that it sold 15.4m iPads
participants was US$25.3tn, a 3.4% decrease from in the last quarter of 2011, a 111% increase on the last
US$26.2tn in March 2011. quarter of 2010, and 37m iPhones, a 128% increase on
the last quarter of 2010. Its latest results also revealed a
Stock markets, in both advanced and emerging record quarterly profit of US$13.1bn and cash deposits of
economies, suffered during the second half of 2011 as the US$98bn. Apple has recently announced a quarterly stock
sovereign debt crisis in Europe and concerns about a dividend of US$2.65 per share, the first ever.
slowdown in China unnerved investors. The MSCI World
Index for large cap companies (MSCI WILC) fell 12.4% for The top five companies are all technology or oil and gas
the period from March 2011 to year-end 2011, while the companies. Their combined market value was US$1.8tn
market value of the top 500 companies fell 12.5% to as of end of March, or about 7.0% of the Top 500
US$22.9tn. companies worldwide.
Markets recovered strongly in early 2012 with the MSCI The biggest share was taken by US companies, which
WILC rising 11.0% by the end of March as concerns about represent 41% of the top 500 or US$10.4tn, compared
sovereign debt in Europe were alleviated and a run of with US$9.6tn in March 2011. US companies accounted
stronger-than-expected economic data was released in the for 173 of the top 500 companies in March 2012, up from
US. However, this recovery faltered towards the end of 159 in March 2011. US companies outperformed other
March as Spanish sovereign bond yields rose and weaker- regions during this period as investor concerns were
than-expected data was released on the US jobs market. focused on problems in Europe and emerging markets,
particularly the slowdown of economic growth in China.
The top company in the list at the end of March 2012 was The number of Chinese companies in the top 500 fell from
Apple, with a market capitalisation of US$559.0bn up by 27 in March 2011 to 22 in March 2012.
74% from a year earlier. Apple share price reached
US$599.47 at the end of March 2012, up by 48.0% from In terms of sectors, banking accounted for 15.1% of the
year-end 2011. Apple overtook two oil companies, top 500 or US$3.8tn. However it declined from a year
ExxonMobil and PetroChina, to reach the top spot, despite earlier when this sector’s share was 16.9% and its value
oil prices being slightly higher in March 2012 than March was US$4.4tn, as investors’ appetite for bank stocks was
2011 (US$124/barrel versus US$117/barrel). undermined over concerns about their exposure to the
sovereign debt of a number of European countries.
Top Five Global Companies
The second most well represented sector is oil and gas,
(US$bn, based on values as of 31st March 2012) which accounted for US$3.3tn in March 2012, compared to
US$3.8tn a year earlier. It has also suffered from the poor
Apple 559 economic outlook, despite persistent strong oil prices.
Six GCC companies are included in the Top 500
Exxon Mobil 409 companies in March 2012, with combined market
capitalisation of US$210bn, up by 5.6% from March 2011.
PetroChina 279 These companies represented 0.8% of the total market
value of the Top 500 companies in March 2012, Saudi
rd
Arabia Basic Industries Company (SABIC), ranked 63
Microsoft 271 with a market value of US$88bn, followed by Al Rajhi Bank
with a raking of 245 (US$33bn), QNB Group at 325
IBM 242 (US$26bn), Saudi Telecom at 404 (US$22bn), Industries
Qatar at 417 (US$21bn) and Emirates Telecom at 459
(US$19.2bn).
Source: FT Global 500
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2. Economics, Financial Analysis and Research
QNB Group
The Top 500 has been historically dominated by US
companies, but in the past few years an increasing
number of companies from Emerging Asia and Latin
America were included. Companies from the GCC were
first included in the 2006 ranking. As the chart below
shows, five of the six GCC companies included in the
March 2012 ranking have advanced their raking, from a
year earlier with QNB Group moving up the scale
significantly from the 500 slot in March 2011 to 325 in
March 2012.
GCC companies in Top 500
(US$bn based on data as at 31st March with the corresponding ranking
also shown)
88
84
2012
2011
63 71
33 31
26
22 21 21 21 23
19 19
245 288
325
500 404 458 417 449 459 411
SABIC Al Rajhi QNB Group Saudi Industries Emirates
Bank Telecom Qatar Telecom
Source: FT Global 500
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