PetroChina was the first Chinese company to briefly become the world’s most valuable company by market capitalization.
PetroChina reached that position on the first day of its Shanghai listing, November 5, 2007. Strong buying pushed its share price sharply higher, giving the oil and gas company a temporary market value above $1 trillion and placing it ahead of established global leaders.
The record was short-lived because PetroChina’s share price declined after the initial surge. Even so, the event demonstrated the scale of China’s equity markets and the investor attention surrounding large state-linked energy companies during the country’s rapid economic expansion.
PetroChina is listed in Shanghai and Hong Kong and is controlled by China National Petroleum Corporation. Alibaba, Tencent and China Mobile are also major Chinese listed companies, but they did not hold this particular first-place market-cap record.