Wal-Mart Stores Inc retained the top spot in Fortune magazine's ranking of the 500 largest publicly traded US companies for this year, but soaring commodity prices led to big gains in revenues and profits for oil and metal producers.
Wal-Mart was No. 1 on the Fortune 500 for the fourth straight year, with sales of more than US$288.189 billion last year, up about 11 percent from 2003.
Exxon Mobil Corp ranked second once again with US$270.772 billion in sales, up a stunning 27 percent from the year before as the price of oil rose above US$50 a barrel and gasoline sold for more than US$2 a gallon. The company also topped Fortune's profits charts for the second year in a row with US$25.3 billion in earnings, breaking Ford Motor Co's record from 1998.
Time Warner Inc's Fortune magazine first published the sales rankings in 1954, and since then only Wal-Mart, General Motors Corp and Exxon Mobil have topped the lists. The latest annual rankings are included in the edition arriving at newsstands on Monday.
The only change in the top 10 came as IBM Corp slipped a rung to No. 10 with US$96.293 billion in sales and American International Group Inc -- now facing a government probe for improper accounting -- edged up to No. 9 from No. 10 with US$98.610 billion.
Automakers GM and Ford ranked No. 3 and No. 4 respectively, despite GM's US$2 billion drop in sales to US$193.517 billion from 2003.
General Electric Co came in fifth with US$152.363 billion, followed by oil companies ChevronTexaco Corp with US$147.967 billion and ConocoPhillips with US$121.663 billion -- both beneficiaries of rising oil product prices -- and Citigroup Inc with US$108.276 billion.
Thirty-eight of the 42 industry sectors that Fortune tracked posted increased profits, while electronics and electrical equipment, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications and airlines suffered profit declines.
With China's surging demand for raw materials and commodity prices reaching new heights, metal producers witnessed the most impressive profit growth over the past year, with gains of more than 800 percent.
"If a company's taking stuff out of the ground, it was making money," Fortune writer Janice Revell said.
Aluminum company Alcoa Inc at No. 79 saw a 40 percent rise in profits, while copper miner Phelps Dodge Corp increased profits 11-fold.
"We're seeing old-fangled, low-glamor companies at the forefront," Revell said. She added that the housing sector saw big gains thanks to low interest rates last year, allowing some new homebuilders to make the list.
The list's most notable debut was media conglomerate News Corp at No. 98. The company, owned by Rupert Murdoch, moved its headquarters from Australia to the US last year and recently increased its ownership of Fox Entertainment Group Inc.
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