Apple's $500 bn market cap is 3 times Pakistan's GDP

Steve Job's Apple will soon be the only company in the world worth $500 billion.The company on Tuesday closed with a market capitalisation of $499.2 billion.Expectation of bumper sales from IPad 3 has led to a sharp rally in the stock.

[caption id="attachment_228992" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="Apple's 1.6 times India's foreign exchange reserves. Reuters"][/caption]

It is not the first time in the history of equity markets that a company will touch $500 billion. Three IT firms Cisco, Microsoft and Intel along with General Electric touched that level in during the dotcom boom in 2000. Exxon Mobil touched that level in July 2009. None of the above mentioned companies are above the $500 billion mark. Apart from Exxon, others are trading at a fraction of that value.

10 fun facts about how big is a $500 billion company:

In Indian rupee terms it is Rs 24,684,900,000,000 or Rs 24,68490 crore.

To put it in perspective, Firstpost compares Apple's size with other elements of the economy, both Indian and global.

Steve Job's Apple is today equivalent to

• 1.6 times India's foreign exchange reserves

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• 40 percent of the value of all stocks traded on the BSE

• 2.5 times the value of BSE mid-cap index

• 4 times the size of BSE IT stocks

• 10 times the size of Reliance

• The size of the top 17 Indian companies by market cap

• Total GDP of the fourprosperousstates in India- Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka

• 3 times Pakistan's GDP

• Only 20 countries in the world have a GDP more than $500 billion

• 15 times the size of Raja's 2G telecom scam