Another Good Year for Equity Markets

For a year that started off with concerns about another Euro crisis and a triple dip recession in the UK, developed equity markets performed strongly in 2013.

Amid potential crisis and concern, developed equity markets performed strongly in 2013.

Index2013 Change (%)
FTSE 100+14.4
FTSE All-Share+16.7
Dow Jones Industrial+26.5
Standard & Poor’s 500+29.6
Nikkei 225+56.7
Euro Stoxx 50+17.1
Hang Seng+2.9
MSCI Emerging Markets (£)-6.7

The performances shown above hide several factors which could be important in 2014:

Emerging markets had a generally disappointing year, witness the fall in the MSCI index. The US Federal Reserve’s plan for tapering QE worried investors in emerging markets, particularly those which rely on foreign capital inflows.