Emerging markets shine

Emerging equity markets outperformed developed equity market in 2007. According to Standard & Poor’s global stock market review, The World by Numbers, emerging markets rose 42 per cent in 2007 versus a gain of 9.4 per cent for the world’s developed markets. “The current and expected sales growth in the emerging equity markets fueled their returns in 2007,” says Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at Standard and Poor’s. “We saw an outflow of cash from the developed markets into emerging.” During the month of December, 16 of the 26 emerging market countries gained ground with impressive returns seen in India (+9.09 per cent), Nigeria (+8.75 per cent) and Egypt (+8.07 per cent). Losses were moderate across the emerging market with both Peru (- 4.64 per cent) and China (-3.82 per cent) declining the most during the month.