uAccording to a study, there are no German companies among the 100 companies with the highest stock market value for the first time in at least 17 years. In the first half of 2022, Germany is no longer represented in this ranking for the first time since the survey began in 2006, as the auditing and consulting firm EY announced on Sunday. The highest rated group based in Germany is the software provider SAP with a stock market value of 106 billion dollars, which is only enough for rank 113. According to the information, Deutsche Telekom made it to 120th place with 98 billion dollars. In addition, the industrial gases group Linde, which has had its headquarters in Ireland since the merger with Praxair, ranked 74th.
According to the calculations, the oil company Saudi Aramco is the most expensive company in the world with a market value of 2.3 trillion US dollars – even ahead of Apple. Overall, however, little has changed in the dominance of US corporations on world stock exchanges: The number of US corporations that can be placed among the 100 most valuable companies in the world at mid-year is 60. Six months ago it was 61. In the mid-year ranking of the most valuable companies in the world, a further eight US companies were placed in the top 10 behind Saudi Aramco and Apple: Microsoft, Google’s parent company Alphabet, Amazon, Tesla, Berkshire Hathaway, UnitedHealth, Johnson & Johnson and Facebook -Mother Meta.
Oil and gas companies buck trend
The price slide on the world stock exchanges – triggered by the Russian war against Ukraine, recession worries and rising interest rates – has meanwhile destroyed trillions: The market capitalization of the 100 most expensive companies in the world fell by 17 percent or 6.1 trillion dollars in the course of the first half of the year. Technology groups were particularly affected, with their stock market value falling by a total of 28 percent. The energy sector was the only industry that bucked the trend: The oil and gas companies that were among the top 100 increased their stock market value by 19 percent.
“The massive political and economic turbulence in the first half of the year left a clear mark on the world’s stock exchanges,” said Henrik Ahlers, CEO of EY. “The significantly gloomier economic outlook, high inflation, rising interest rates and massive geopolitical tensions have led to profound uncertainty – although many of the top companies are still posting high profits.” Ahlers expects a very difficult second half of the year: “The bad news are piling up, many crises, some of which fuel each other, have to be overcome, the danger of a global recession is now real.”
