Apple,sberbank shares yield highest returns

The shares of U.S. consumer electronics giant Apple and Russia’s largest state-run bank Sberbank have given investors the highest returns over the past ten years, The Economist reported on Thursday. A hundred dollars invested in Apple in February 2002, around the time it unveiled its redesigned iMac, would have swelled to $3,900 today. The same investment in Sberbank, would now be worth more than $3,700, The Economist said. U.S. oil giant ConocoPhillips and online sales company Amazon are third- and fourth-place on The Economist list with a return of slightly over $1,300. The list of the top ten most profitable companies also includes two Chinese firms, Petrochina and China Petroleum, two Brazilian companies Vale and Banco do Brazil, Mexican telecom holding America Movil and India’s oil and gas firm ONGC. The companies and banks that fared worst include Barclays, UBS, Bank of America, Citigroup, Royal Bank of Scotland and Allied Irish Bank, the U.S. and German insurance companies AIG and Allianz, and also Mitsubishi and the Japanese mobile operator NTT DoCoMo. The Economist list includes the 200 biggest operating companies that also existed in 2002.