Huge profits has propelled Wal- Mart Stores Inc. to the top of the 2007 Fortune 500 list, and pushed aside Exxon Mobil Corp. to the No. 2 spot on the magazine's annual ranking of largest 500 U.S. companies.

The list, released by the magazine on Monday, pegs Wal-Mart 2006 revenue at about 351.1 billion U.S. dollars, an 11.2 percent increase over the previous year, with profits of 11.3 billion dollars.

Exxon Mobil's made a profit of about 39.5 billion dollars on revenue of 347.2 billion in 2006.

The Fortune ranking is based on revenues, and three of the top five companies on the list came from the oil industry due to the once skyrocketing energy prices. Fortune also publishes a list of top 500 global companies.

Rounding out the top 10 on the list were General Motors; Chevron Corp; ConocoPhillips; General Electric; Ford Motor; Citigroup; Bank of America Corp. and American International Group.

The 500 largest U.S. companies collectively generated profits of 785 billion dollars in 2006, a 29 percent rise over 2005.

Among the 500 firms, Exxon Mobil was the most profitable company, followed by UAL (22.9 billion dollars); Citigroup (21.5 billion dollars); Bank of America Corp. (21.1 billion dollars) and General Electric (20.8 billion).

Source: Xinhua