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Good riddance to 2011 markets
The final numbers for 2011 are in our table. The Lao Stock Exchange performed well for 2011, despite the index being down 10 percent year to date. The index resumed trading on Tuesday with its full 12 months debut trading year ending on January 10.
With the positives balancing much of the negatives, the Dow Jones Industrial Index was able to post a positive return for the year, gaining 5.5 percent. The S&P 500 ended flat for the year, while the tech-laden Nasdaq Composite Index ended slightly down by 1.8 percent.
The final tallies illustrate that, although the euro zone financial crisis has taken all the attention in recent months, the Asia-Pacific was headquarters to the year's biggest losers.
Only 10 markets managed to post positive returns for the year according to Bloomberg data. Of those 10, three came from the ASEAN region which performed well beyond expectations.
Overall economic growth remains weak as US growth faltered and China showed signs of slowing down. Emerging market economies such as Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRICs) are also experiencing slowdowns in growth as declining external demand from US and Europe have started to take effect.
The Nikkei, Hang Seng and SENSEX in a near dead heat for next to last, posted declines in the 25-26 percent area.
As for results, India's main SENSEX Index had the worst year, with a loss of nearly 25 percent. In Asia, the Shanghai Composite fell the furthest from its interim high, down a whopping 36.64 percent from its 2009 high.
For the global investor, this was best described as a rough year for stocks. Take a look at the returns by country in 2011. The US looks like a nice house on the wrong street.
In summary “global stock market returns” were on average a lousy -14 percent in 2011, with -13 percent for developed markets and -18 percent for emerging markets.
The Lao Index activity was rather quiet after the holiday break with only 18.2K of shares trading for US$11,435.
In all, the LSX Index shed 1.11 points yesterday on its third day of low volumes and closed down at 898.35 points, for an overall three day loss of 1.81 percent.
BCEL lost 50 kip to close at 7,200 kip, while EDL-Gen remained firm and unchanged at a price resistance of 4,200 kip.
vientiane times
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