Oil giant Exxon Mobil on Friday regained crown from Apple as the most valuable listed company after losing it to the tech giant a year ago.

By the closing on Friday, Apple' s shares slid 2.36 percent to 439.88 dollars per share for a market value of around 413 billion U.S. dollars. Exxon' s shares gained 0.42 percent to 91.73 dollars per share for a market value of some 418.2 billion dollars.

Compared with its historical intraday high of 705.07 dollars per share set on Sept. 21, 2012, Apple' s share price has retreated 38 percent.

Apple' s shares made a free fall during Thursday' s trading after the tech giant reported lackluster earnings and sales in the first quarter of its 2013 fiscal year.

In the quarter ending Dec. 29, Apple made a record-high profit of 13.1 billion U.S. dollars on a revenue of 54.5 billion dollars, but the figures still fell short of analysts expectations.

The company also reported record-high sales of 47.8 million iPhones and 22.9 million iPads but failed to beat analysts forecast.

Apple' s share price first surpassed Exxon' s in the summer of 2011 and since then the two companies had been vying for the title. In January 2012, Apple beat Exxon by an overwhelming margin and has been holding on to it until Friday. Endi

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