AsiaPundit knew that China’s stock markets would end 2005 at the bottom of the barrel, and that Bursa Malaysia would also rank low. Great gains by South Korean and Japanese markets have been well documented. Still, even for someone who keeps abreast of these things, this chart showing the 2005 performance of global stock markets in local-currency terms contains a few shocks. Not the least of which is that Zimbabwe topped the list.

click to enlarge

There are, of course structural reasons for the odd performances of some markets - China’s are well described here but AsiaPundit admits total ignorance on Zimbabwean equities.

That said, if a booming economy like China can produce negative returns on equity while a basket-case like Zimbabwe produces such stellar results, AsiaPundit would strongly recommend that Pyongyang establish a bourse.

(And if anyone can provide direction to a good article on Zimbabwe stocks it would be appreciated.)

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