Toyota becomes Asia's biggest firm by market value

TOKYO - Toyota has accelerated past South Korea's Samsung Electronics to become Asia's biggest company by market value, after the Japanese automaker's shares doubled in the past year.

On Thursday morning, Toyota's market capitalisation stood at 21.89 trillion yen (S$267 billion), beating out the Galaxy smartphone and tablet computer giant, which was worth the equivalent of 20.26 trillion yen.

Toyota, also the world's biggest automaker, has seen its shares jump on the back of ever-improving financial results with the Corolla and Camry maker saying last week its full-year net profit more than tripled.

Samsung overtook the Japanese giant in the market value table in 2011, according to the leading Nikkei business daily, as the South Korean conglomerate notched up huge profits in its global battle with US rival Apple.

Toyota's Tokyo-listed shares, which were trading at 6,350 yen by the break Thursday, finished Wednesday's session at 6,440 yen, more than double their 3,165 yen closing price on the same day a year ago.

Samsung shares were trading at 1.506 million won ($1,350) on Thursday