Saudi Aramco emerges as most Valuable CompanySan Francisco: Saudi Arabia's National Petroleum and Natural Gas Company dethroned Apple to become the world's most valuable company. This oil-producing company valued at $2.42 trillion, according to the value of its shares at the close of market, came ahead of Apple as there was a significant surge in oil prices, while tech stocks plummeted.
On Wednesday, Apple saw its share price drop, and was valued at $2.37 trillion when trading officially ended. Despite having a good profit in the first three-months of the year and having a strong consumer demand, there was a drop in share price owning largely to the ongoing Covid 19 restrictions in China. Apple had previously warned that supply chain concerns due to this lockdown would have an impact in the June quarter and would see a reduction by $4 to $8 billion.
Luca Maestri, Chief Financial Officer, on a conference call with analysts said, "Supply constraints caused by Covid-related disruptions and industry-wide silicon shortages are impacting our ability to meet customer demand for our products".
The oil company Saudi Aramco recently reported an increase in profit by 124 percent, despite the temporary dip in production following a Yemeni attack of its facilities. This is also factored by the fact that Saudi Arabia is among the world's largest crude oil exporters. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has further increased the demand for the country to increase oil production and export, according to AFP.
The company said also said that there was an increase in income as the global economy began to recover post Covid 19, "Aramco's net income increased by 124 percent to $110.0 billion in 2021, compared to $49.0 billion in 2020".
Aramco president and CEO, Amin Nasser said, "We continue to make progress on increasing our crude oil production capacity, executing our gas expansion program and increasing our liquids to chemicals capacity".
Acknowledging the 2021 results, he said that "economic conditions have improved considerably".