Toronto-Dominion Bank TD-T has become Canada’s largest company by market value, surpassing rival Royal Bank of Canada RY-T on Wednesday for the honour.
At the close of trading, TD had a market capitalization of $65-billion, slightly ahead of RBC, which closed at $64.9-billion.
TD had been gaining on Royal for the past few months, and briefly saw its market value rise above RBC’s on Sept. 1, when it reached $70.99-billion in market capitalization during early afternoon trading, compared with RBC's $70.87-billion. However, by the end of trading that day, RBC closed with a higher market value than TD.
RBC has been Canada's most valuable company by market capitalization since February, 2009, when it passed Barrick Gold Corp ABX-T., which rose to the top spot a few years ago amid a soaring commodities market.
The last time TD had a higher market value than RBC was the fall of 2000.
Market capitalization is the total market value in dollars of a company's outstanding shares.
The move comes as Canada’s banks prepare to report quarterly earnings in early December. Analysts expect RBC will be among the lenders hardest hit by market turbulence in Europe, due to its large capital markets division.
Royal remains Canada's largest bank by assets, with $726-billion under management, compared with $620-billion at TD. Total assets is usually the key measure used to determine a bank's clout. Market capitalization shows how investors value the bank.
