Facebook is worth £1.21 billion more than Malaysia and IBM is valued at £1.81 billion more than Mexico, according to research released today by Bank of America Merill Lynch.
The bank’s report, titled ‘The Thundering World’, highlighted that the social media giant is worth £88.33 billion compared to Malaysia’s £87.11 billion, while computing heavyweight IBM is worth £124.27 billion compared to Mexico’s £122.44 billion.
But the two tech behemoths included in the report aren’t the only US tech firms outpacing the market value of entire countries. Indeed, Google boasts a market value of £231 billion and Apple, the richest tech company in the world but not included in the report, has a market value of £293 billion.
BAML compared nine US company stocks, including non-tech firms such as Starbucks and Exxon, to nine countries and emerging market economies.
Overall the countries came out on top with a market value of £1.98 trillion, compared to the stocks’ £1.97 trillion.
The bank’s chief strategist, Michael Hartnett, says the comparisons show that emerging markets seem inexpensive: “Brazil’s market cap barely exceeds that of Google, India’s is less than Wells Fargo’s and Turkey’s is practically the same as Starbucks,” he said.
Harnett added that there appears to a “buyer’s strike” taking place at the moment, pointing to a foreign exchange survey carried out this with 250 BAML clients, which revealed that only seven percent are buyers of emerging market currencies.
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