PetroChina first reached a $1 trillion market capitalization on the Shanghai Stock Exchange in 2007.
PetroChina began trading in Shanghai in November 2007 after selling a portion of its shares to the public. On its first trading day, a surge in the share price briefly gave the company an implied market capitalization of roughly $1 trillion, making it the first company reported to reach that level.
PetroChina is the publicly listed arm of China National Petroleum Corporation, one of China’s major state-owned energy groups. Its operations include exploration, oil and gas production, refining, chemicals, pipelines, and fuel sales.
The episode occurred during a period of strong investor enthusiasm in Chinese equities. Because only part of the company was freely traded, the market-capitalization figure represented the value of all shares implied by the listed price, not just the shares sold in the offering.