PetroChina briefly became the world’s most valuable company on its first trading day in 2007.
PetroChina’s shares surged when the company began trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on November 5, 2007. The rise briefly gave it a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion, making it the first company reported to reach that valuation outside the major Western technology and energy leaders of the time.
PetroChina is the publicly traded subsidiary of China National Petroleum Corporation, one of China’s major state-owned energy groups. Its operations include exploration, production, refining, transportation, and sales of oil and natural gas.
The record was short-lived because the share price fell sharply after the opening surge. Another common mix-up is treating PetroChina as fully independent of the Chinese state: its listed shares are public, but its parent company is state-owned. The event also illustrates why market-cap rankings can change dramatically during an initial public offering.