GE, whose profits rose 13 per cent to $ 8.2 billion last year, ranked first on the Forbes Super 100, the magazine's list of the 100 most powerful companies in the country. The list ranks companies based on sales, profits, assets and the value of its stock, or market value.

GE ranked No 1 in market value, No 5 in sales, No 2 in profits and No 5 in assets based on last year's results.

Exxon ranked No 2 overall. It was third in sales, first in profits (at $ 8.5 billion), 27th in assets and fourth in market value. It was the co-champion of the 1996 list along with GE.

General Motors Corp ranked No 3 overall, as it was the prior year. It came in No 1 in sales, at $ 178 billion, No 4 in profits, No 11 in assets and No 36 in market value. IBM which last year was No 6, moved up to fourth place overall. It rated sixth insales and profits, 31st in assets and 14th in market worth.

Ford Motor Co dropped from third place to fifth place this year. It rated second in sales, seventh in profits, 12th in assets and 44th in market value.

Rounding out the top 10 were Citicorp (No 6), Travelers Group (No 7), American International Group (No 8), AT&T Corp (No 9) and Philip Morris Cos Inc (No 10).

Other well known companies on the list included Wal-MartStores (13), BankAmerica Corp (14), Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter (15), Mobil Corp (16), Procter & Gamble (17), NationsBank (18), Bell Atlantic Corp (19) and DuPont (20). Forbes said a total of 779 companies made one or more of the rankings and they had combined earnings of $357 billion, up 7 per cent from the year before.

The median market value for the Forbes Super 100 is $ 34.4 billion, up from $ 28.1 billion a year before.

Total employment of the 779 companies on the lists was 21.9 million.