The Financial Times reports on Jan. 3 that the General Electric has secured its leadership at the newspaper's world top 500 list in 2005. The second is Exxon Mobil, whose market value has shrunk following the oil price drop since last summer.

Most significant changes of the list based on the market value are seen on the ranking of oil and gas companies. Russia's state-run gas giant Gazprom has leapt forward to the 16th from the 310th. Google has made the fastest promotion in the history of the list by Financial Times. The world's largest search engine, which went public one and a half years ago, has had its position rocketed to the 46th. Apple has won a position in the top 100 for the first time with its IPOD sales legend. It stands at the 88th, compared with its previous place at the 210th.

Companies expelled from the list include Gillette which has been acquired by P&G, US fifth largest mobile operator Nextel which has been merged by Sprint, and Lucent whose stock prices plummeted.

By People's Daily Online