BusinessWeek has published its first annual ranking of Asia's best—performing publicly listed companies. With soaring oil prices, the top four slots —— and 11 of the BW 50 —— were captured by regional energy giants such as PetroChina, India's Oil and Natural Gas, and S—Oil of South Korea.

While the Chinese and Indian economies have recieved much media attention in recent months, they had a relatively minor impact on the rankings. 

With Japanese and South Korean economies showing renewed signs of growth, their firms were handsomely represented.  In fact, South Korean companies took five of the top 10 and Japan 11 of the 50. Industries that stand out among the 50, in addition to oil and gas, included steel, shipping, construction, and electronics.

The ranking used a combination of financial measures for earnings and sales growth, plus return on assets and other benchmarks. Companies were evaluated over both one— and three—year time frames.

Brian J. Schwarz    10 15 05