Tesla’s stock market value overtakes Facebook

Shares of Tesla surged to a record high in heavy trading on Thursday, with the electric car maker's stock market value exceeding Facebook's for the first time.

Shares in the company led by Elon Musk jumped nearly 8% to end the session at $816, putting its market capitalisation at $774bn and making it Wall Street's fifth-most-valuable company, just behind Google-parent Alphabet and ahead of Facebook.

More than $39bn worth of Tesla's shares were bought and sold during the session, a record for Tesla and more than the next three most traded companies combined, which were Apple, Alibaba Group Holding and Amazon.com.

Tesla, up more than 700% in the past 12 months, has become the most valuable auto company in the world by far, despite production that is a fraction of rivals such as Toyota Motor, Volkswagen and General Motors.

Musk surpassed Amazon's Jeff Bezos to become the world's richest person, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday.

Analysts, on average, expect Tesla to report $1.2bn in net profits for 2020, compared with $5.8bn in net profits expected from GM and $27.1bn in net profits expected from Facebook, according to Refinitiv.