STEPHEN CRANSTON: Beware the titans
Only Apple and Microsoft have remained in the top 10 since 2010
Today’s giant shares seem destined to dominate global stock markets indefinitely. But titans are, in fact, regularly displaced by other businesses, and few have the foresight to predict which ones they are going to be. Very few could have predicted that a car company would be in the top 10 shares in 2021. The last motor manufacturer in this august grouping was Toyota, back in 1990. And that was primarily because Japanese shares dominated world markets, rather than because of enthusiasm for the internal combustion engine. This time it’s not Toyota but Tesla, which satisfies the twin themes of technological revolution and a green economy. That’s helped the company achieve an extraordinary market cap of $670bn.
Only Apple and Microsoft have remained in the top 10 since 2010, while the only nontechnology share in the group today is Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway...
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