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Global Stock Markets 2009: Russia, Brazil, India and China - - the best big market performers; Worst decade for US stocks since 1820s
By Michael Hennigan, Founder and Editor of Finfacts
Jan 1, 2010 - 10:30:26 AM
Global stock markets were boosted by government support programs across to world in 2009 with Russia, Brazil, India and China, the best big market performers. The decade has been the worst for US stocks, since the 1820's and regional indexes in Europe and Asia also show decade declines.
The Russian market rose 111.6% in 2009, followed by Brazil at 82.7%; India's BSE Sensex 30 at 81% and China's Shanghai SE Composite Index with a 79.2% return in 2009.
Sri Lanka gained 125.3% and Indonesia 87%.
The Australian benchmark S&P/ASX 200 gained 30.9%; and laggards in Asia, were Japan's Nikkei 225 up 19.0% and New Zealand's NZX 50 climbing 18.9%.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 35% and tracks about 1,000 regional stocks.
The MSCI Asia Pacific Index ex-Japan stocks - - about 400 - - surged 68%.
India's Sensex Index has more than tripled in the past decade, compared with a 4.5% drop in the MSCI Asia Pacific Index.
March 9th, was the day in 2009 to make money as the Asia Pacific Index plunged to a 5-year low and rose 70% subsequently, while indexes in Europe and the US plunged to 12-year lows on the same day.
In Europe, national benchmark indexes rose in all of the 18 western European markets with the exception of Iceland, in 2009.
Norway's OBX was the best performer in 2009, gaining 70%.
The FTSE 100 saw its biggest annual rise since 1997, adding 22% and becoming the first advanced country to recover its post September 2008 Lehman Brothers' crash loss; Germany's Dax rose 23% while France's CAC 40 added 22.%.
The S&P dropped 24.1%, excluding dividends, over the same ten-year period ending Thursday.
The Wall Street Journal said Thursday marked the end of what has been the worst calendar decade for stocks since the 1820s, when reliable stock-market records began, according to data compiled by Yale University finance professor William Goetzmann.
The Journal says that since the end of 1999, the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index has lost an average of 3.3% a year on an inflation-adjusted basis, compared with a 1.8% average annual gain during the 1930s when deflation afflicted the economy, according to data compiled by Charles Jones, finance professor at North Carolina State University. His data use dividend estimates for 2009 and the consumer price index for the 12 months through November.
Bloomberg reports that the S&P 500 posted an average decrease of 0.9% a year since 1999 including dividends, the first negative return for a decade since data began in 1927, according to S&P analyst Howard Silverblatt.
“This dispelled two myths,” Robert Arnott, founder of Research Affiliates, which oversees $47 billion in Newport Beach, California, told Bloomberg. “The notion that investment gains are easy, and the notion that stocks will win for the patient investor, no matter what we pay.”
