Global stock market - $124 trillion; What are the dominant sectors

The world's three largest sectors by capitalization are currently information technology, financials and industrials, which together represent 50% of the global stock market, according to an analysis by visualcapitalist.com.

It notes that in many countries, including the US, China, Taiwan and Germany, large technology companies are the most valuable. At the same time, financial firms have a large presence in America and China, while industrial giants are leaders in Japan.

Aswath Damodaran's data, cited by visualcapitalist.com, highlights that in 2025, the global stock market, worth $ 124 trillion, will include 11 sectors and almost 48,000 companies. With a market capitalization of $ 25.7 trillion, the information technology sector covers more than a fifth of the global financial markets (21%), by capitalization. The number of listed companies in the sector worldwide stands at 6,198. As of February 10, 2025, six technology companies were among the top ten most valuable companies in America. In China, technology giants Tencent and Alibaba are among the top ten largest companies by market capitalization. A similar trend is observed in Europe, where business software giant SAP closes the Top three companies with a market capitalization of $333 billion. In second place in the aforementioned list is the financial sector, with a value of $21.14 trillion. There are 5,244 listed companies in the sector, and the market share is 17%. While Berkshire Hathaway is the most valuable profile company in America (and in the world), it is the only financial firm in the Top 10. In contrast, four of the top ten companies in China are large banks. For example, ICBC, China's largest bank by market capitalization, rivals Wells Fargo and Morgan Stanley in the US in terms of valuation.

Ranked third, the industrial sector is home to more publicly traded companies than any other sector: 8,780 globally (12% market share, total capitalization - $15.32 trillion). This trend is reflected in the S&P 500 index, where the number of industrial companies exceeds that of the information technology sector. At the same time, it is much less concentrated, with the top ten companies by market capitalization representing 36% of the sector in June 2024. In contrast, the top ten largest information technology companies represented 77% of the sector.

Beyond the Americas, industrial companies dominate in Japan, representing 23% of the market, led by Toyota, the world's largest automaker.

In fourth place is consumer discretionary, with a total capitalization of $13.66 trillion (11% share, 6,251 companies). Next are healthcare, with $10.72 trillion (9% share, 4,504 companies); communications services ($9.33 trillion; 8% share; 2,226 companies); consumer staples ($7.90 trillion; 6% share; 3,155 companies); energy ($6.75 trillion; 5% share; 1,416 companies); materials ($6.11 trillion; 5% share; 6,462 companies); utilities ($3.75 trillion; 3% share; 910 companies); real estate ($3.29 trillion; 3% share; 2,664 companies).