Global Outlook

Market Performance 2012

Contributed by eResearch

There was a lot of hand-wringing by investors throughout 2012, as considerable negative market headlines caused significant volatility in markets. But, on balance, market performance was surprisingly good. However, some of this can be attributed to a natural rebound from the disastrous 2011 performance which, other than for the DJIA, was negative.

Despite being in the EuroZone, Germany (Frankfurt) led the way in 2012 with an impressive 29% gain. India (Mumbai) rebounded strongly, up 26%, followed closely by Hong Kong with a gain of 23%.

With Apple Inc. leading the way, the NASDAQ out-performed all remaining indexes, rising 16%. The S&P 500 gained 13%, but the DJIA was up only 7%. The resource-heavy Canadian market did not do as well as the U.S., with the S&P/TSX Composite rising only 4%, and the TSX Venture Exchange falling 18% after a whopping 2011 decline of 35%.

Looking at the individual sector indexes, in Canada, the year-over-year winners are the two consumer indexes, Staples and Discretionary, with almost identical gains. Industrials, Financials, and Health-Care came next. Negative performances were put in by Utilities, Materials, and Energy.