(Bloomberg) -- LVMH (EPA:LVMH) is closing in on Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) Inc. for ninth spot on the list of the world’s biggest companies by market capitalization, only days after entering the top 10.
Shares in the luxury-goods benemoth have risen 6.9% this month, lifting its market value to about $500 billion, helped by stronger-than-expected first-quarter sales. Tesla has fallen 23% in the same time, cutting its capitalization to $505 billion as price cuts take a toll on the electric carmaker’s profitability.
Read: LVMH Market Value Exceeds $500 Billion, a First in Europe
The men in charge of the two firms have already switched places on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index this year. LVMH’s rising value has swelled the wealth of Bernard Arnault to almost $212 billion, making him the richest person on earth, while Elon Musk is a distant second with wealth of $165 billion.
LVMH and its French luxury rivals are to the European stock market what Big Tech has been to the US: Dominant businesses whose growth is holding up even as the economy waxes and wanes.
Their rally has cemented Paris’s standing as Europe’s biggest stock market, eclipsing London. The benchmark CAC 40 Index is on a record-setting spree, with gains of more than 15% this year, outpacing other major markets.
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