Volkwagen Largest Company by Market Cap????

FT (via Credit Writedowns):

Volkswagen briefly became the world’s largest company by market capitalisation on Tuesday as panic-buying by hedge funds desperate to cover losses caused its value to shoot up by up to €150bn.

Shares in Europe’s largest carmaker soared as high as €1,005 in early trading, having closed at about €210 on Friday. That gave it a market capitalisation of around €296bn ($369bn), higher than that of ExxonMobil, the oil company that closed on Monday with a value of $343bn......

“I have hedge fund managers literally in tears on the phone,” said one London-based auto analyst. Hedge funds had bet that VW’s share price would fall but after Porsche disclosed it held 74 per cent of the carmaker rather than the previously assumed 35 per cent there was a huge scramble to cover positions.