Well, it's happened again. Commonwealth Bank of Australia (ASX: CBA) shares have just hit yet another new all-time record high. Yesterday, this ASX 200 bank stock closed at $135.95 each.
But today's trading, although volatile at times, has seen the banking giant climb even further. In afternoon trading, the Commonwealth Bank share price climbed as high as $137.53 a share – the new record high for CBA.
This rate puts Commonwealth Bannk's market capitalisation at a whopping $229.9 billion.
Today's gain is just the latest step in what has been an incredible journey for Australia's largest bank. It was only in October 2023 that CBA shares were under $97 each. But investors have been bidding up the company ever since. At today's pricing, the CBA share price is up more than 42% from that October low.
It's also risen 29.8% over the past 12 months and by 20.8% over 2024 to date. Investors who were lucky enough to pick up CBA shares back in the depths of the 2020 COVID crash at around $57 each would now be sitting pretty on a rise of approximately 140%.
Check that all out for yourself below:
BHP who? CBA shares reign as ASX 200 top dog
A remarkable consequence of CBA's share price ascension has been its new status as the top dog on the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO).
As we first covered here at the Fool earlier this month, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia is now the ASX's largest share by size (market capitalisation). It displaced mining giant BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) to claim the top spot.
As my Fool colleague Tristan noted at the time, CBA's valuation makes it larger than "Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC), ANZ Group Holdings Ltd (ASX: ANZ), Bendigo and Adelaide Bank Ltd (ASX: BEN), Bank of Queensland Ltd (ASX: BOQ), AMP Ltd (ASX: AMP), Judo Capital Holdings Ltd (ASX: JDO) and Pepper Money Ltd (ASX: PPM) combined".
Until 2024, the idea of CBA being larger than BHP (already one of the largest miners in the world) would have been unthinkable. Especially after BHP ended its dual-listing on the London Stock Exchange and embraced a 'unification' of its corporate stock structure on the ASX back in early 2022.
But while CBA shares have been soaring in 2024, BHP shares have been stagnating. At current pricing, BHP shares are now down around 16.6% this year so far.
It's this divergence of fortunes that has allowed CBA to take out BHP as the ASX's largest stock. Let's see how long it can keep its crown for now.
