NEW YORK: China’s largest e-commerce company Alibaba surpassed the world’s largest brick-and-mortar retailer by market cap in intraday trade Tuesday.
Alibaba Group’s market capitalization hit a high of $248.15 billion during Tuesday’s session, surpassing Wal-Mart Stores, whose market cap reached $247.5 billion earlier in the day. At closing, their market caps were about even around $246 billion. Shares of Alibaba, which is China’s largest e-commerce company and part owned by Yahoo Inc, have risen 47% since pricing at $68 during the company’s September IPO.
They closed up 1.9% to $99.68 on Tuesday, while those of Wal-Mart slumped 0.3% to a $76.35 close. Alibaba, run by Jack Ma, has been growing rapidly as more consumers shift to the Internet to buy everyday items. However, its sales are still a fraction of Wal-Mart’s. In the second quarter, Alibaba posted sales of $2.54 billion, compared with Wal-Mart’s $120 billion.
