By Stephen Mayne

The Commonwealth Bank is extending its lead over National Australia Bank in the .

CBA shares soared 49c to a new record of $44.47 yesterday, lifting its capitalisation by another $630 million to $57.3 billion.

By way on contrast, NAB, which held the title for most of the last 20 years, slipped 8c to $33.55 and is capitalised at $53.8 billion.

Westpac’s outrageous fee gouge on ATM transactions last week has certainly helped underpin the stock recently and it is capitalised at $42.3 billion, whilst ANZ is worth $45.1 billion.

In total, the big four banks have ordinary shares worth $198.5 billion so the magical $200 billion figure will be eclipsed any day now. However, when you include the value of more than $2 billion worth of in-the-money but unexercised options, our big four banks have cracked that valuation level already.