BHP dethrones Commonwealth Bank as Australia’s largest stock, widens market capitalisation gap to nearly $3 billion; what it shows about the Australian sharemarket

BHP, the world’s largest mining company, officially reclaimed its top spot on the ASX as Australia’s largest stock by market capitalisation. The miner surpassed Commonwealth Bank (CBA) on Tuesday (January 27, 2026) for the first time since October 2024.

According to Bloomberg, the shift gives out an indication that investors have become more optimistic about the country’s resources sector amid a rally in global commodity prices. BHP managed to dethrone Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) and become Australia’s most valuable company following a broad surge in metals markets that boosted the mining company’s shares.

The world’s biggest miner gained as much as 3.4% on Tuesday, taking its market capitalisation to over A$253 billion, Bloomberg reported. Currently it makes up approximately 9.3% of the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index.

BHP nearly 3 billion above CBA

BHP overtook Commonwealth Bank (CBA) on the ASX, and its market capitalisation has since risen to $254.2 billion Wednesday afternoon (January 28, 2026), according to 9 News. This meant that the mining company was nearly $3 billion above the valuation of CBA, which stands at $251.5 billion despite a small rise in today's trading.

ASX describes BHP Group Limited (BHP) as a diversified natural resources company. The company's assets, operations and interests include iron ore, copper, metallurgical coal, nickel and potash. The market capitalisation of the company, according to the ASX website, stood at $252.67 billion at the time of filing of this report.

Australian shares close low

Meanwhile, Australian shares gave up early gains on Wednesday to close marginally lower. The benchmark ‌S&P/ASX 200 ‌index finished 0.1% lower at 8,933.90 points after rising as much as 0.4% earlier in the session.

The movements in the sharemarket were triggered by hotter-than-expected underlying inflation data that raised expectations for an interest rate hike as early as next week.

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