The ‘Can you spot a BIG company’ quiz poll results/discussion

Former_MSE_Lawrence

The poll has now finished...


And the answer was.................. Tesco! only 9% of voters got this right, with Rio Tinto ( a massive mining company) being singled out as not in the top 10 by the most. The full results are now listed below.


Poll Started 28 April 2008:

The ‘Can you spot a BIG company’ quiz.

There are 11 companies listed below; ten of the UK’s biggest companies (or technically the biggest listed on the London Stock Exchange) and one other. The rankings are based on ‘market capital’, which is the current stock market valuation of all those listed as at 28 April 2008 according to the Sunday Times data.

Vote for which you think ISN’T a top ten UK company…

And no cheating and looking it up!

Anglo American - 8% (460 votes)
BG (British Gas) - 14% (777 votes)
BHP Billiton - 11% (632 votes)
BP - 2% (111 votes)
British American Tobacco - 8% (449 votes)
Glaxo Smith Kline - 4% (228 votes)
HSBC - 11% (635 votes)
Rio Tinto - 17% (939 votes)
Shell - 5% (266 votes)
Tesco - 9% (503 votes)
Vodafone - 11% (638 votes)

Voting has now ended, but you can still click 'post reply' to discuss below.

sdooley

Interesting how many of the top of the financial sector have left the top ten in the last few years to resources companies.

http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/181/biz_06uk40_all_slide_10.html?thisSpeed=15000

mute_posting

Had an interesting link today at work asking if we knew who our institutional investors were (the big pension and investment companies basically) but it also listed the other companies that each invested in..

Seems HSBC, (Royal Dutch?) Shell, Vodafone are very popular picks.

MP

zcaprd7

mute_posting wrote: »

Had an interesting link today at work asking if we knew who our institutional investors were (the big pension and investment companies basically) but it also listed the other companies that each invested in..

Seems HSBC, (Royal Dutch?) Shell, Vodafone are very popular picks.

MP

Yes, it always amazes me when you get (generally ignorant) types moaning about 'excessive' profits (BP a favourite target) - where do they think this cash goes? Everyone who has a pension and/or insurance policy benefits (and the government takes their cut as well to build schools/hospitals, prop up Northern Rock etc).

mcdogfood

Interesting how even amongst money savvy people, the guesses are so varied. I also found it pretty difficult to actually find the answer afterwards! Great poll.

Glowboy

After looking them all up on the Yahoo share price pages it appears my vote was right. Not the obvious (or most popular) answer though.

teddyco

This is an interesting poll because it makes me realize how different our corporate world is today compared to 20 years ago, and when 'Made in China' conjured up images of a little, wind-up, tin monkey that beat a drum with both arms.

Karl.H_2

Hi. Which was the correct answer?

Former_MSE_Dan

Hi Karl (and everyone)

It was Tesco

Berisford

Hmmm....I must be a bit thick 'cause I thought we were looking for a non UK company in the list, that is to say a company that appears UK but is in fact foreign.

Silly me!

rfburke

Last year BP paid a net total of -£1million in corporate tax. That's right, -£1million the goverment actually refunded them tax money. So effectively they didn't contribute anything to the country from their record profits.