Carburton Street, London -- With the FTSE 100 down 18% since New Year's Day, 2001 has been a tough year for UK investors. But the portfolio pain has not been confined to these shores. Most major stock markets around the world have registered dreary performances in the past twelve months. However, a handful of overseas markets did report some notably positive performances.
Europe was not a happy hunting ground for stock pickers in 2001. Indeed, the FTSE 100's performance was by no means the worst of the year. The Italian stock market has fallen 31% this year, with the Swedish market declining by 30%. The French market has lost 27% and German market is down 25%. In fact, such were the generally poor performances, the only European investors smiling this Christmas are those from Slovakia and Slovenia. Their stock markets are up 26% and 14% respectively on the year.
Investors across the Atlantic didn't fare too well during 2001 either. Using the S&P 500, the general US market has fallen 11%, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq reporting a 20% slide. The Canadian market fell 18%. Turning to South America, the stock market in crisis-ridden Argentina has surprisingly fallen 'just' 20% this year. Meanwhile, Brazilian investors saw their shares plunge by 27%.
It was a familiar stock market story in the Far East this year, too. Japanese investors endured yet another dreary twelve months, with the Nikkei 225 plunging 32%. Hong Kong shareholders saw their market reporting a 24% decline on the year.
So where were the year's bright spots? You'd have to have been an enterprising emerging markets investor to have produced robust returns in 2001. Good stock market performances were registered in Ecuador (up 34%), Kuwait (up 29%), Korea (up 27%), Mexico (up 20%) and Sri Lanka (up 20%).
But those five countries pale into insignificance when compared to Russia. The Russian stock market has surged 75% this year as the country continues to emerge from its 1998 debt crisis. However, even the Moscow market wasn't the top 2001 performer. That accolade goes to the Chinese Shanghai B stock market (which allows foreign investment, as opposed to the A market, which doesn't), which soared 95% during the year.
Indeed, this particular stock market probably contained the year's investing fad, too. Between February and May this year, the Shanghai B market tripled in value, a performance no doubt fuelled by foreign investors jumping aboard the latest 'growth in China' bandwagon
More: Should You Invest In Emerging Markets? | International Investing
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