Apple joins $500bn club after shares surge

Technology giant Apple became part of an elite group of companies with an equity value above $500bn yesterday, after shares climbed 2% on talk the group is poised to launch a new iPad.

Apple, already the world's most valuable company, saw shares close up at $535.41 last night, fuelled by the latest product talk and expectations it will soon start to pay a dividend. The move higher took its equity value to $504bn, and the group is also poised to become one of a very small number ever to have a market capitalisation of more than $500bn. Last night its market cap stood at $499.2bn, well ahead of the market caps of previous technology titans Microsoft (now $266bn), Intel ($136bn) and Cisco ($109bn). The three all saw their peaks reached during the dotcom boom of 1999...