While Brazil may have been the best bet for global equity investors in 2009, Ukraine was the world’s best performing equity market over the last 10 years, data compiled by Reuters show.
Reuters: “The former Soviet state was the best performing stock market in the world in the last 10 years, surging 890 percent in dollar value, though 1999-2009 returns from government debt generally outstripped those generated by equities.
Along with Peru and Sri Lanka, Ukraine was also among the top 10 performing stock markets in 2009, a year that saw emerging equities more than double the gains of the MSCI main developed market index.”
Over the decade, the market cap of the Ukrainian bourse, the origins of which date back to the large-scale privatization of state assets in the early 1990s, has increased tenfold to $26 billion, fueled by the explosion of new securities sales.
The Ukrainian equity market is also fairly diversified. While the majority of stocks (about 60 Ukrainian equities can be purchased through ADR or GDRs) are related to the iron and steel industry, which is the main export of Ukraine, it is by no means a dominant sector. Other sectors, such as banking, power utilities, oil and gas, telecommunications, and engineering are gradually expanding their presence.
In July 2007, the Ukrainian stock market, which almost collapsed during the 1998 financial crisis but suddenly exploded in 2004, bringing close to a 1000% to date, was ranked the best performing stock market in the world.
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