CHINA’S rally is thrusting its companies back into the ranks of the world’s very largest stocks, with three rejoining the top 10 list to slow a recent run of American dominance.

    Gains in PetroChina Co., Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd. and China Mobile Ltd. have made their shares the fourth, seventh and eighth-most valuable in the world, after each was absent a year ago. Each has surged in the past 12 months amid an advance that pushed the Shanghai Composite Index up 94 percent.

    Advances in share prices of firms listed in Shanghai and Shenzhen have swelled the value of shares to more than US$7 trillion and are spreading to Hong Kong, which just eclipsed Japan as the world’s third-largest market.

    “It’s the reality of the stock market catching up with the reality of the economy’s footprint,” said Xavier Smith, who oversees international equities at Centre Asset Management in New York. “For the world’s second-largest economy, you’d expect to see some of its stocks in the top 10 list. It’s more bizarre that they weren’t there before.”

    With the U.S. Federal Reserve studying a timetable for raising the benchmark cost of lending, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has cut interest rates twice since November, aiding a rally that’s sent the Shanghai Composite up 75 percent over the last six months. Last April, Premier Li Keqiang said the PBOC wasn’t considering further easing.

    “Their government has finally decided that they shouldn’t be stepping on the brake, but instead applying some stimulus,” said Bruce McCain, who helps oversee more than US$25 billion as chief investment strategist at the private-banking unit of KeyCorp in Cleveland. “That’s a huge shift from what we saw last year.”

    PetroChina, the nation’s biggest oil and gas firm, has jumped 15 percent this year in Hong Kong. The Beijing-based company last week passed Exxon Mobil Corp. as the biggest energy company by market value for the first time since 2010. Exxon has since overtaken PetroChina, which has a market capitalization of US$353 billion and ranks fifth globally.

    ICBC has surged 12 spots in the global market value rankings over the past year, riding a 50 percent stock surge on the Shanghai market during the period. The Beijing-based bank is now the world’s largest lender by assets, having overtaken JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Wells Fargo & Co. during its stretch of gains.

    China Mobile has climbed 21 percent on the Hong Kong exchange this year, boosting its global ranking from No. 15 in December, amid optimism that its expansion on high-speed networks will boost subscriber growth in the world’s largest smartphone market. At US$289 billion, its share value surpassed General Electric Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

    “China is so big in terms of population and potential revenue that it’s inevitable their companies will have among the biggest market caps,” said Skip Aylesworth, a portfolio manager at Hennessy Funds in Boston, where he helps oversee about US$5 billion.

    The US$7.3 trillion value of companies with primary listings in China compares with the nation’s estimated US$10.4 trillion gross domestic product (GDP) in 2014, according to data compiled the International Monetary Fund. The 70 percent value-to-GDP ratio compares with 110 percent at the height of China’s equity boom eight years ago and the current level of 143 percent in the United States.

    Some money managers question the pace of economic expansion in China and remain skeptical about the ability of companies to live up to their valuations. The Citigroup Inc. Economic Surprise Index for China dropped the most in a year Monday. The measure is now negative, indicating that data releases have been worse than expected. (SD-Agencies)