Volkswagen AG today surpassed Toyota Motor Corp. to become the world's biggest automaker by market value as the shares benefit from hedge-fund trading strategies and the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Volkswagen is up 190 percent in 2008 after surging as much as 55 percent today. The owner of the Audi brand was one of only four stocks in the Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index that rose yesterday in the European gauge's worst decline since October 1987, making the carmaker this year's best performer on the continent.
With analysts forecasting profit growth will slow to 1 percent in 2009 from 17 percent this year, the Wolfsburg, Germany-based car producer's earnings outlook isn't boosting its price. Instead traders who shorted the shares on expectations they would decline on Porsche SE's bid for a majority stake were forced to close their positions, according to three people in the securities-lending business who declined to be identified. The failure of Lehman, which lent Volkswagen shares to short-sellers, probably helped trigger a so-called short-squeeze, they said.
2008 Paris Auto Show
2009 BMW 7-Series