In a dismal year for most companies, a minority have shone: pharmaceutical groups boosted by their hunt for a Covid-19 vaccine; technology giants buoyed by the trend for working from home; and retailers offering lockdown necessities online.
Public companies had the tailwind of a surprisingly robust stock market — which many believe is a bubble. To rank companies that prospered in the pandemic, we have chosen to look at equity value added.
Here are the companies who ranked 1- 50.
1. Amazon
Sector: ecommerce
HQ: Seattle, US
Market cap added: US$401.1 billion
Key stat: Amazon anticipates it could spend US$4 billion to keep its logistics running during the coronavirus crisis.
As world leaders ordered their citizens indoors, Amazon became the emergency port of call for those desperate to stock up on vital household goods — a rush that led the company to temporarily shut its warehouses to "non-essential" products. Record revenues followed, but also soaring costs. Chief executive Jeff Bezos warned as much as $4bn could be spent on virus mitigation, such as testing labs and thermal cameras — potentially pushing Amazon into its first quarterly loss since 2015. Still, the accelerated shift to online shopping and the increased importance of its cloud computing business in the remote work era drove Amazon's stock to all-time highs.
- Dave Lee in San Francisco
2. Microsoft
Sector: Technology
HQ: Redmond, US
Market cap added: US$269.9 billion
Key stat: 75 million people used the Teams communication app in a single day in April, up from 20m in late 2019.
Microsoft's shift to the cloud under Satya Nadella has left it well-placed for a world where large numbers of people are working remotely. The Teams communication app has become a way for workers to stay in touch. The Azure cloud computing platform has become a more critical part of the digital backbone for many companies. Microsoft even has a way to satisfy the personal: a record 90m players turned to the Xbox Live gaming service in April.
- Richard Waters in San Francisco
3. Apple
Sector: Technology
HQ: Cupertino, US
Market cap added: US$219.1 billion
Key stat: The iPhone maker managed to rake in US$58.3 billion in revenue in the March quarter, despite closing all of its retail stores.
While all of Apple's 500 stores around the world were forced to close, revenues in the opening quarter were resilient thanks to robust online sales. Apple managed to release a new iPhone, iMac and MacBook Air, drawing more users into an ever-expanding ecosystem of wearables and services. Apple executives predicted sales of some items would even accelerate, as millions of consumers working from home would opt to upgrade their electronics. Investors crowned Apple the first US$1.5 trillion company.
- Patrick McGee in San Francisco
4. Tesla
Sector: Autos
HQ: Palo Alto, US
Market cap added US$108.4 billion
Key stat: 647km: the range of Tesla's latest Model S, underscoring its technological lead.
The clear technology leader for battery-powered cars, Tesla is outpacing legacy competitors as they struggle to retool factories and perfect software. Meanwhile, chief executive Elon Musk is promising to upend the entire model of car ownership with fleets of self-driving robotaxis that would charge by the mile. Still, even Musk said on Twitter, on May 1, that the "Tesla stock price is too high". Since then it has climbed even higher.
- Patrick McGee
5. Tencent
Sector: Technology
HQ: Shenzhen, China
Market cap added: US$93 billion
Key stat: Online gaming revenues rose 31 per cent in the first quarter.
Chinese people isolated at home turned to Tencent's virtual worlds. In its hit games such as Honor of Kings, users shelled out for new weapons and outfits. Tencent's video subscriber numbers swelled to 112 million, its music streamers jumped to 43 million and monthly users of its social media app WeChat — indispensable for buying noodles and verifying users' health during the coronavirus period — hit 1.2 billion. In a global spending spree, Tencent has exploited falling valuations: it recently acquired Norwegian game developer Funcom, took a stake in German developer Yager, and poured capital into an array of fintech start-ups.
- Ryan McMorrow in Beijing
6. Facebook
Sector: Technology
HQ: Menlo Park, US
Market cap added: US$85.7 billion
Key stat: 39 per cent — the rise in advertising impressions at Facebook in the first quarter of the year.
Knocks to Facebook's advertising business during the pandemic have been offset by its 2.6 billion entertainment-starved users spending more time on the platform. Small business advertisers slashed their marketing budgets. But Facebook's engagement levels exploded, increasing its advertising impressions. The company has launched new video chat and livestream features, as well as an ecommerce play to rival Amazon, known as Facebook Shops. However, its content moderation capabilities have been stretched by coronavirus-related misinformation and conspiracy theories. Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has come under fire from employees for failing to flag incendiary or misleading statements from US President Donald Trump.
- Hannah Murphy in San Francisco
7. Nvidia
Sector: Technology
HQ: Santa Clara, US
Market cap added: US$83.3 billion
Key stat: Hours spent playing games on Nvidia's platforms jumped 50 per cent during lockdowns.
Nvidia's graphics chips have become a mainstay of gaming machines and machine learning systems, insulating the company from the worst of the downturn. Sales of gaming chips were dented by the closure of internet cafés in China, while the automotive industry, a big customer, has experienced a collapse in sales. But Nvidia's business has been helped by the growing importance of ecommerce in selling new graphics cards, along with a shift towards online gaming. It has also been riding a boom in demand for data centre chips from big internet companies, as AI becomes a more important component of their services and overall digital activity jumps.
- Richard Waters
8. Alphabet
Sector: Technology
HQ: Mountain View, US
Market cap added: US$68.1 billion
Key stat: Even as advertising collapsed at the end of March, YouTube's revenue was still growing nearly 10 per cent.
Given that online advertising went into sharp decline as the crisis unfolded, early signs suggest Alphabet has shown surprising resilience. Sectors such as travel and local services may have dried up, but in other areas Google — which supplies virtually all Alphabet's revenue — has reported that demand is holding up better than expected. Search advertising appeared to stabilise early in the crisis, after touching bottom in late March. The Google cloud computing platform, Meet video app and Play app store have benefited from the shift of work and entertainment online.
- Richard Waters
9. PayPal
Sector: Payments
HQ: San jose, US
Market cap added: US$65.4 bllion
Key stat: 7.4 million — net new users in April.
The pioneer of online payments has found increased relevance in the real-world pandemic, rolling out new capabilities for merchants to handle contactless payments in physical stores. PayPal facilitated the transfer of more than US$1 billion in federal loans as part of the US Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program. Its money transfer app Venmo was popular, pre-coronavirus, for friends settling dinner bills. Now, the company says, it is witnessing larger, cross-generational transfers — such as socially-distanced withdrawals from the Bank of Mum and Dad — and increased usage for paying for goods and services that might otherwise have been paid for with cash.
- Dave Lee
10. T-Mobile
Sector: Telecommunications
HQ: Bellevue, US
Market cap added: US$59.7 billion
Key stat: T-Mobile added 452,000 postpaid phone subscribers in the first quarter.
The US wireless company benefited from the twin forces of lockdowns, which made people more dependent on their phones for connection, and the closing of its long-awaited merger with rival Sprint. The deal made T-Mobile the third-largest player in the US telecoms market, trailing AT&T and Verizon, and is expected to give the big phone companies more pricing power.
- Anna Nicolaou in New York
11. Pinduoduo
Sector: Ecommerce
HQ: Shanghai, China
Market cap added: US$55.2 billion
Key stat: Shoppers on its platform increased to 628 million.
The ecommerce group benefited as hundreds of millions of Chinese turned to shopping from their smartphones rather than going to malls. As demand rose for its ultra-cheap goods, the total value of transactions over its platform soared and revenues were up 44 per cent in the first quarter. Its annual shopper count is fast approaching the 726 millio who shop with its chief rival Alibaba.
- Ryan McMorrow
12. Netflix
Sector: Media
HQ: Los Gatos, US
Market cap added: US$55.1 billion
Key stat: 183 millio global subscribers by the end of Q1, a 23 per cent jump from a year earlier.
Netflix added twice as many subscribers as it had forecast in the first three months of the year, as the largest paid streaming service entertained global lockdown audiences with shows such as Tiger King, La Casa de Papel and Love is Blind. The biggest boost came from Europe, the Middle East and Africa, where it signed up nearly 7 millio subscribers in the first quarter. The company is enjoying a "perfect storm", said Michael Nathanson, analyst at MoffettNathanson. "The longer the current situation lasts, the bigger the benefit to Netflix."
- Anna Nicolaou
13. Meituan Dianping
Sector: Ecommerce
HQ: Beijing, China
Market cap added: US$53.6 billion
Key stat: Food delivery orders had bounced back to 90 per cent of their pre-pandemic level by mid-May.
China's "everything app" was hit hard by the country's lockdown, which closed many of the restaurants it partnered with to deliver meals — its largest chunk of business — as it swung to a loss in the first quarter. But by May, executives were upbeat as food delivery and travel booking recovered. Analysts said that high-end restaurants, which were afraid of "cannibalisation" and "bad user experience", had no choice but to turn to the platform for deliveries. Its average ticket price climbed 14 per cent in the first quarter and many riders began delivering to set spots in apartment buildings, saving them time and improving their efficiency.
- Ryan McMorrow
14. Shopify
Sector: Ecommerce
HQ: Ottawa, Canada
Market cap added: US$51.4 billion
Key stat: 62 per cent more new Shopify stores were created from March 13 to April 24 than the previous six weeks as locked-down retailers rushed online.
Shopify overtook eBay to become the second-biggest ecommerce group after Amazon by US market share last year, processing US$61 billion worth of merchandise globally. The pandemic accelerated shopping's shift online, with Shopify among the prime beneficiaries — doubling its valuation since the start of 2020. Start-ups such as Allbirds shoes and global groups including Heinz are among hundreds of thousands of brands using its software and services to sell directly to customers — cutting out middlemen such as Amazon.
- Tim Bradshaw in London
15. Zoom Video
Sector: Technology
HQ: San Jose, US
Market cap added: US$47.9 billion
Key stat: Zoom video calls reached 300 million participants a day* in April.
The video conferencing company has come to symbolise the work-from-home boom of 2020, making its fake digital backdrops a cultural touchstone of the coronavirus crisis. Opening its business-focused app to a wide group of non-paying consumers and educational institutions brought challenges, but also helped turn Zoom into a household name. Wider usage brought attention to its security lapses and while some prominent companies warned their staff not to use it, the controversy did little to hurt business. By the end of April, the number of medium and larger companies using Zoom was up more than three-fold from a year before, while revenue soared 169 per cent.
- Richard Waters
16. JD.com
Sector: Ecommerce
HQ: Beijing, China
Market cap added: US$44.3 billion
Key stat: Revenues jumped 21 per cent in the first quarter.
When China's lockdown hit in late January, JD.com was the only ecommerce player reliably delivering packages. Its red, three-wheeled delivery carts remained on city streets as those ferrying goods on behalf of its rivals Alibaba and Pinduoduo struggled to find couriers. Its shares jumped almost 6 per cent on its trading debut in Hong Kong on June 18, the same day as its annual shopping bonanza, as it raised nearly US$4 billion in the second-largest share sale globally this year.
- Ryan McMorrow
17. Adobe
Sector: Software
HQ: San Jose, US
Market cap added: US$40.1 billion
Key stat: The number of PDF documents shared using Adobe's software rose 50 per cent compared with same quarter a year ago.
After becoming the first big software company to shift its business to the cloud, switching one-off product sales for more reliable subscription income, Adobe has experienced barely any interruption from the pandemic. It has also been well-positioned for the world of remote work. By the end of April it had reported an across-the-board jump in activity on its cloud services for content creation — which have grown out of products such as Photoshop — as well as workflow tools based around digital documents.
- Richard Waters
18. Audi
Sector: Autos
HQ: Ingolstadt, Germany
Market cap added: US$37.8 billion
Key stat: €4.6bn — Audi's operating profit in 2019, the largest of VW's 12 marques.
Covid-19 hit the so-called Four Rings hard, bringing its usually healthy profit margins down to almost zero in the first three months of 2020. But for investors with their hands on the 0.36 per cent of publicly-traded Audi stock, the past few months have been something of a bonanza. Trading at €800 at the start of the year, the shares have been on a meteoric rise since February, when parent company VW announced it would buy out remaining stakeholders. In mid-June, VW confirmed it would pay €1,551.53 per outstanding share, subject to approval at the company's next AGM.
- Joe Miller in Frankfurt
19. AbbVie
Sector: pharmaceuticals
HQ: Chicago, US
Market cap added: US$37.7 billion
Key stat: Received regulatory clearance for its US$63 billion deal for Allergan in May.
Botox was one of the key reasons for AbbVie wanting to buy Allergan — securing solid cash flow from the cosmetic treatment. There were concerns that in a world of social distancing, sales would suffer. But as plastic surgeons reopen, analysts believe Botox sales will almost be back to normal by the middle of the third quarter. Despite losing patent protection on its anti-inflammatory Humira — the bestselling drug in the world — in the US by 2023, the prospects for four other drugs, including in oncology and for psoriasis, have enticed investors to a stock with "stable growth" and a good dividend yield. Hannah Kuchler in New York
20. Kweichow Moutai
Sector: Beverages
HQ: Zunyi, China
Market cap added: US$35.5 billion
Key stat: Consistently maintains a profit margin above 90 per cent.
Kweichow Moutai, maker of China's best-known distilled spirit, seems well positioned to benefit from the reopening of the Chinese economy. While the spirit serves as a lubricant for business deals, a shortage of supply is giving an extra boost. The distiller increased annual output by a mere 30 per cent from 2014 to 2019 even though China's high-net-worth population, Moutai's main consumer, more than doubled over the same period.
- Sun Yu in Beijing
21. Chugai Pharmaceutical
Sector: Pharmaceuticals
HQ: Tokyo, Japan
Market cap added: US$33.9 billion
Key stat: Global Hemlibra sales surged 146 per cent during the first quarter.
The Japanese unit of Switzerland-based Roche is the producer of rheumatoid arthritis drug actemra, which is being trialled in the US and Japan as a potential treatment for critically ill coronavirus patients. However, the pandemic is not the only catalyst for the sharp rally in its shares. Chugai's profits rose 57 per cent in the first quarter on expanding sales of its haemophilia blockbuster Hemlibra, which has catapulted the company into becoming Japan's most valuable drugmaker.
- Kana Inagaki in Tokyo
22. Alibaba Group
Sector: Ecommerce
HQ: Hangzhou, China
Market cap added: US$32.8 billion
Key stat: Alibaba's cloud unit grew 57 per cent in the first quarter.
China's ecommerce giant experienced stagnating sales at its core Tmall and Taobao online marketplaces in the first quarter under the strain of undermanned courier partners. However, other business units such as cloud computing and bricks and mortar grocery helped it achieve 22 per cent year-on-year sales growth. Now, with couriers back at their posts and its millions of merchants back at their keyboards, the Hangzhou-based company is expected to fully reap the rewards of coronavirus-induced caution.
- Ryan McMorrow
23. Sea Group
Sector: Technology
HQ: Singapore
Market cap added: US$31.8 billion
Key stat: Sea's self-developed global game Free Fire hit a record of more than 80 milio daily active users in the first quarter of 2020.
South-east Asia's biggest listed technology company benefited from drawing the bulk of its revenue from two coronavirus-proof sectors: gaming and ecommerce. Demand for its hit game Free Fire surged in the March quarter while a consumer shift to digital channels boosted sales for its loss-making ecommerce business in south-east Asia and Taiwan.
- Mercedes Ruehl in Singapore
24. The Home Depot
Sector: Retail
HQ: Atlanta, US
Market cap added: US$31.5 billion
Key stat: Like-for-like sales rose in 11 of The Home Depot's 14 departments in the first quarter.
While much of the retail sector has struggled with forced store closures and a drop in consumer spending, The Home Depot is among a select group whose sales have jumped in the crisis. US authorities allowed the company's megastores to remain open throughout the pandemic because much of the equipment they stock, such as water heaters, refrigerators and electrical and plumbing gear, make them lifelines in home emergencies. Americans have also been upgrading their living space, buying more furniture, decor and lighting, while undertaking more DIY projects, boosting demand for tools and materials.
- Alistair Gray
25. ASML
Sector: Technology
HQ: Veldhoven, Netherlands
Market cap added: US$27.3 billion
Key stat: ASML's R&D expenses for the first quarter of 2020 were €544m, a year-on-year increase of 15 per cent.
The Dutch giant's dominance in photolithography for chipmaking has helped it weather Covid-19 disruptions. Its advances in the use of extreme ultraviolet light means ASML's machines can etch a greater number of circuits per chip — key for advances in the "internet of things", AI and 5G communications.
- Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan in London
26. Roche
Sector: Pharmaceuticals
HQ: Basel, Switzerland
Market cap added: US$27.1 billion
Key stat: 100 per cent sensitivity — or the real number of positives Roche claims its own antibody test can detect 14 days after a positive PCR test.
Roche, which is one of the diagnostics "Big Four", has also benefited from the rollout of its tests for coronavirus, which check for current and recent signs of infection through a process known as PCR and by checking for antibodies. Its high-throughput machines are used to quickly process hundreds of tests. The Swiss drugmaker is also testing actemra, an arthritis drug, against Covid-19, both on its own and in combination with Gilead's remdesivir.
- Donato Paolo Mancini in London
27. Prosus
Sector: internet
HQ: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Market cap added: US$24.6 billion
Key stat: US$8 billion — the cash and debt available for Naspers' international investment vehicle to make deals.
While it has long been the good fortune of the South African internet group Naspers to own 31 per cent of China's Tencent, exposure to the Fortnite-to-WeChat giant paid off again this year. It has led to a surge of one-third in the share price of Prosus, the company's European investment vehicle that is waving the cheque book for deals in the post-coronavirus world. Prosus, which houses the Tencent stake and other assets to make up Europe's biggest consumer internet group, already has globe-spanning businesses in sectors that could benefit if the pandemic does inspire a greater digital shift, such as food delivery and online education.
- Joseph Cotterill in Johannesburg
28. ServiceNow
Sector: Cloud software
HQ: Santa Clara, US
Market cap added: US$23.1 billion
Key stat: 80 per cent of revenue comes from repeat subscriptions paid by large companies.
As a platform for automating back-room processes, ServiceNow stands to benefit from the greater pressure many companies feel to boost worker productivity and improve the overall efficiency of their operations. It also has a stable revenue base and guaranteed pipeline of new business in the years ahead, thanks to its use by big companies that pay regular subscriptions, and which are mostly at an early stage in applying the technology across their organisations.
- Richard Waters
29. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals
Sector: Pharmaceuticals
HQ: New York, US
Market cap added: US$20.1 billion
Key stat: Shares have risen more than one-third since February.
Regeneron is working on repurposing an existing drug and developing a new antibody cocktail for Covid-19. Studies using Kevzara, an anti-inflammatory, to target the overactive immune response of some patients produced disappointing early results but the trial is being changed to focus only on patients with the most severe disease.
- Hannah Kuchler
30. Alibaba Health Information
Sector: Healthcare
HQ: Hong Kong, China
Market cap added: US$20.1 billion
Key stat: Shares are up 129 per cent so far in 2020.
A Hong Kong-listed company controlled by Jack Ma, it focuses on pharmaceutical ecommerce and operates China's drug product identification, authentication and tracking system. The company benefited from providing internet medical services during the Covid-19 emergency.
- Thomas Hale in Shanghai
31. Samsung Biologics
Sector: Healthcare
HQ: Incheon, South Korea
Market cap added: US$20 billion
Key stat: 150 per cent increase in the share price in 12 months.
A subsidiary of Samsung that focuses on manufacturing biopharmaceuticals on a contract basis, the company gained from striking deals this year with Vir Biotechnology — to produce Covid-19-neutralising antibody products — and GSK, to expand its manufacturing capacity.
- Donato Paolo Mancini
32. Novo Nordisk
Sector: Pharmaceuticals
HQ: Bagsvaerd, Denmark
Market cap added: US$19.8 billion
Key stat: Net profit in the first quarter was US$1.74 billion.
One of the world's largest insulin producers, Novo Nordisk benefited from a recent surge in demand across the pharmaceuticals sector, as patients and healthcare providers stockpiled drugs.
- Donato Paolo Mancini
33. Salesforce
Sector: Cloud software
HQ: San Francisco, US
Market cap added: US$19.1 billion
Key stat: Sliced US$1 billion off its annual revenue guidance due to the difficulty of closing sales in the pandemic.
As the pioneer of cloud-based software applications for businesses, Salesforce could be lifted by the greater urgency for companies to digitise their operations. The crisis has dented its growth in the short term, but investors are betting that "digital transformation" will become an even bigger imperative for companies across the economy, with Salesforce among the winners.
- Richard Waters
34. Adyen
Sector: Payments
HQ: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Market cap added: US$19 billion
Key stat: Volume of payments processed increased 38 per cent year on year in the first quarter.
A surge in online shopping helped prop up volumes at Adyen, which processes payments for companies such as Microsoft and eBay. Growth was dented by weakness in the travel sector and falling in-store sales, but Adyen expects to benefit in the long term as the crisis accelerates a shift from cash in favour of contactless payments.
- Nicholas Megaw in London
35. Eli Lilly
Sector: Pharmaceuticals
HQ: Indianapolis, US
Market cap added: US$18.8 billion
Key stat: US$250 millio extra sales in the first quarter, attributed to Covid-19 stockpiling.
Eli Lilly started the first study of an antibody treatment for Covid-19 this month. The medicine is derived from the antibody response from one of the first US patients to contract the disease. Working with the Canadian company AbCellera, it found the most effective antibodies and reproduced them.
- Hannah Kuchler
36. Moderna
Sector: Pharmaceuticals
HQ: Cambridge, US
Market cap added: US$18 billion
Key stat: 30,000 participants are expected to enrol in the phase-three trial of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate.
Moderna was the first US company to get a potential coronavirus vaccine to human trial. Just 42 days after it received the genetic sequence of the virus, Moderna had a vaccine in vials ready to test. Its messenger RNA technology allows it to be super speedy — but no vaccine using it has ever been approved by a regulator.
- Hannah Kuchler
37. Mercado Libre
Sector: Ecommerce
HQ: Buenos Aires, Argentina
Market cap added: $18 billion
Key stat: The number of items sold on Mercado Libre's ecommerce platform surged 76 per cent in April.
For Mercado Libre, being in the right place at the right time has proved critical. Its ecommerce platform has ballooned in popularity over the past five years, and by facilitating electronic payments during the pandemic lockdown, its sales have surged further. Latin America has relatively low ecommerce penetration — but Mercado Libre is already the clear leader in this sector.
- Benedict Mander in Buenos Aires
38. Dexcom
Sector: Healthcare
HQ: San Diego, US
Market cap added: US$17.2 billion
Key stat: 44 per cent revenue growth in the first quarter of 2020.
Dexcom makes a type of blood sugar monitor that continuously checks patients' glucose levels — a product that may have pushed the stock higher as the coronavirus crisis has increased demand for healthcare solutions for diabetics, who are an at-risk category for Covid-19.
- Donato Paolo Mancini
39. NetEase
Sector: technology
HQ: Hangzhou, China
Market cap added: US$17 billion
Key stat: Demand for its online games during coronavirus-led lockdown boosted first-quarter revenue by 18 per cent year on year.
The Chinese gaming group, known for its mobile title Fantasy Westward Journey, benefited from millions of its users being stuck at home seeking entertainment due to the outbreak of coronavirus in China. The company, which receives four-fifths of its revenue from video games, used the momentum to pursue a US$2.7 billion secondary listing on the Hong Kong Exchange in June. Mercedes Ruehl in Singapore
40. Mindray
Sector: Medical equipment
HQ: Shenzhen, China
Market cap added US$17 billion
Key stat: Shares in the medical devices maker are up 53 per cent this year.
Shenzhen-listed Mindray designs and manufactures advanced medical equipment and accessories for human and veterinary use, selling its products in China and overseas. Founded in 1991, it focuses on patient monitoring and life support, in-vitro diagnostic and imaging products. Mindray has exported nearly 100,000 medical devices, including ventilators, during the coronavirus pandemic.
- Thomas Hale
41. DocuSign
Sector: Electronic documents
HQ: San Francisco, US
Market cap added: US$16.3 billion
Key stat: The e-signature leader lifted its annual revenue growth target from 31 per cent to 34 per cent, or US$1.3 billion.
The pioneer of managing electronic contracts digitally has enjoyed a doubling of its share price as shelter-in-place orders during the pandemic have accelerated a shift towards contactless, automated solutions. The group has 661,000 paying customers and is optimistic it can charge many more of its free users — numbered in the hundreds of millions.
- Patrick McGee
42. Vertex Pharmaceuticals
Sector: Pharmaceuticals
HQ: Boston, US
Market cap added: US$16.3 billion
Key stat: The biotech reported 35.5 per cent sales growth in 2019.
Vertex is not making a Covid-19 treatment. But the Boston-based biotech was able to beat expectations and raise its forecasts in the first quarter, as sales of its treatments for cystic fibrosis, a market where it is dominant, were unaffected by the pandemic. In fact, patients with the genetic lung disease may be even more likely to seek treatment as Covid-19 heightens health concerns.
- Hannah Kuchler
43. Twilio
Sector: Technology
HQ: San Francisco, US
Market cap added: US$16.1 billion
Key stat: Daily sign-ups rose 25 per cent from March 18 to April 30 compared with the first 11 weeks of the year.
Software developers use Twilio to create communication tools such as chat bots, all in the cloud, making the company's offerings a timely choice for industries ranging from telehealth to distance learning. The company lifted revenue by 57 per cent in the first quarter compared with last year, despite slowdowns at some of its biggest customers such as Lyft and Uber.
- Miles Kruppa in San Francisco
44. Square
Sector: Payments
HQ: San Francisco, US
Market cap added: US$15.7 billion
Key stat: Square distributed US$800 million to small businesses as part of the US government's stimulus package.
Jack Dorsey's Square was seen as a Covid-19 loser when small businesses started to close, but investors perked up when it seemed the company's integrated payments platform would be a key part of a faster-than-expected recovery, with contactless payments and ecommerce upgrades. But analysts worry things could start to look dicey for Square once the mom-and-pop outlets it depends on can no longer turn to government stimulus money for support.
- Dave Lee
45. CATL
Sector: Auto parts
HQ: Ningde, China
Market cap added: US$15.4 billion
Key stat: The Chinese group is investing €1.8 billion in a German battery plant.
China's largest manufacturer of batteries for electric vehicles has highlighted new deals and technical breakthroughs. A supplier to global carmakers such as Volkswagen, Daimler and Volvo, the Shenzhen-listed company is set to firm up its foothold on the Chinese market, announcing this month that it is ready to make a million-mile battery. It also said in February that it was in talks with Tesla to jointly produce batteries.
- Christian Shepherd in Beijing
46. American Tower
Sector: Telecoms
HQ: Boston, US
Market cap added: US$15.2 billion
Key stat: The company built 993 communication towers in the first quarter, more than three-quarters of them in Asia and Africa.
Mobile phone masts are surpassing glitzy office buildings as some of the most coveted assets in real estate. So, while jittery investors have been dumping shares of office building developers and shopping mall owners, they have piled into American Tower, the world's most valuable listed real estate investment trust.
- Mark Vandevelde in New York
47. Prologis
Sector: Industrial property
HQ: San Francisco, US
Market cap added: US$15.1 billion
Key stat: Tenants signed leases on 28.3m sq ft of warehouse space in April and May, down 16 per cent from last year.
Since acquiring rival warehouse owner Liberty Property Trust in a US$13 billion all-stock deal in February, which added more than 15 per cent to its market capitalisation, Prologis has been contending with requests for rent deferrals as some retailers have struggled to stay afloat. Still, with many shops still closed and customers moving online, logistics space is expected to be in demand.
- Mark Vandevelde
48. Keyence
Sector: Industrial tech
HQ: Osaka, Japan
Market cap added: US$14.6 billion
Key stat: In a recent graduate recruitment presentation, the company claimed it had enough cash to survive 17 years with no sales.
In early June, Keyence shares hit an all-time high and the automation specialist became Japan's second most valuable company after Toyota. Foreign investors have been especially drawn to its sky-high profit margins, and the pure-play it offers on robotics and automation — themes many expect to dominate globally in coming years, but which have been accelerated by Covid-19 and the pressure it has put on factories.
- Leo Lewis in Tokyo
49. Atlassian
Sector: Clouf software
HQ: sydney, Australia
Market cap added: US$14.2 billion
Key stat: Year-on-year revenue increased 36 per cent in the first quarter.
Covid-19 provided a boost to this Australian software company, which specialises in developing tools to help people collaborate and remain productive while working remotely. Atlassian is giving away some products for free during the crisis in a bid to grow market share and boost revenues.
- Jamie Smyth in Sydney
50. Luxshare Precision
Sector: Manufacturing
HQ: Dongguan, China
Market cap added: US$14.2 billion
Key stat: Revenues rose 83 per cent in the first quarter.
The little-known Apple supplier, a maker of the wireless AirPod earbuds, has enjoyed a share price boost during Covid-19 after reports it could be expanding production for new models. The Foxconn rival has been tipped as a likely beneficiary of Apple's push to diversify its supply chain. Supported by demand from remote workers, the US tech giant's wearable sales have continued to rise, with some analysts predicting AirPod sales as high as 90m by the end of the year.
- Christian Shepherd in Beijing
© Financial Times
