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Walmart back on top of Fortune list

Washington - US retail king Walmart toppled Royal Dutch Shell from the top spot on the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's biggest companies, based on total revenues, the magazine said on Monday.

Walmart Stores reported $476.3bn in revenues for 2013 as it ramped up international business.

Royal Dutch Shell of the Netherlands, which reigned for the prior two years, slipped to second place as revenues fell to $459.6bn.

Two Chinese energy companies - Sinopec and China National Petroleum - held the third and fourth spots, ahead of US oil and gas giant ExxonMobil.

Performance records

The United States still had the most companies on the Fortune 500 list "for now", Fortune said, but with diminished strength. There were 128 US companies on the list, reporting a combined $8.6trn in revenues, down from 132 last year.

The number of Chinese companies on the list grew by six to 95, reporting $5.8trn in revenues.

Meanwhile there were 150 European companies this year, slipping from 151 last year.

"Global business is back," Fortune said. "After limping through a worldwide financial crisis and economic slowdown, the 500 largest companies ranked by revenues shattered all sorts of performance records in 2013."

Their combined revenues rose to $31.1trn, a gain of 2.5% from 2012, while profits skyrocketed 27% to nearly $2trn.

Chief executives

Rounding out the top 10 were energy companies BP of Britain and China's State Grid, automakers Volkswagen (Germany) and Toyota (Japan) and Switzerland-based commodities company Glencore.

Banks dominated the list with 55 companies, followed by energy companies (40) and automakers (33).

The Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, was the highest-ranked bank as revenues surged 11.3% to $148.8bn.

In the technology sector, South Korea's Samsung was the largest, holding the 13th spot, ahead of US rival Apple, which moved up four places to 15.

Fortune said there were a record 17 women as chief executives of Fortune Global 500 companies.

Making the list for the first time were Mary Barra of General Motors, Nishi Vasudeva (Hindustan Petroleum), Arundhati Bhattacharya (State Bank of India) and Lynn Good (Duke Energy).

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