(Yicai Global) Jan. 3 -- Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba Group Holding appeared at the apex of last year's list of market capitalization of the country's top 500 listed firms who met last year's CNY27.2 billion threshold for inclusion -- a record high.

Alibaba bore away the bell with a cool CNY4 trillion (USD567.3 billion), surpassing China's other internet giant Tencent Holdings, per figures from Shanghai-based East Money Information's stock data site. Runner-up Tencent had a market value of CNY3.2 trillion, up CNY594.6 billion from 2018, while Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the country's largest lender, stayed unbudged at third place with about CNY2.1 trillion, up CNY210.3 billion yearly.

The market cap of China's top 500 listed companies added up to about CNY63.7 trillion last year in an annual 29 percent rise, the data show.

Another seven firms also had a value of more than CNY1 trillion, to wit China Construction Bank, Ping An Insurance, Kweichow Moutai, Agricultural Bank of China, China Mobile, Bank of China and PetroChina.

Information technology contributed 88 companies to the list, the most of any sector, while the financial field placed second with 82 inductees.

Of these companies, 116 had headquarters in Beijing -- the largest contingent -- followed by those based in Shanghai and in Zhejiang, Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces.

China's top 500 companies have thus employed a 17.5 million-strong workforce, statistics show.

Editor: Ben Armour