Emerging markets outperform its developed peers: S

Singapore, Jan 14 (UNI) Rating agency Standard&Poor's today said the emerging equity markets outperformed the developed equity market last year, with India leading the way.

According to Standard&Poor's global stock market review, 'The World by Numbers', emerging markets rose 42 per cent in 2007 versus a gain of 9.4 per cent for the world's developed markets.

''The current and expected sales growth in the emerging equity markets fueled their returns in 2007,'' said Howard Silverblatt, Senior Index Analyst at Standard and Poor's.

As a result, we saw an outflow of cash from the developed markets into emerging, he added.

The review said sixteen of the 26 emerging market countries gained ground in December with impressive returns seen in India (+9.09 per cent), Nigeria (+8.75 per cent) and Egypt (+8.07 per cent).

Losses were moderate across the emerging market board with both Peru (-4.64per cent) and China (-3.82 per cent) declining the most during the month. However, both countries posted strong full-year gains of 72.88 per cent and 69.83 cent respectively.

The review adds that eleven of the 26 emerging markets gained at least 50 per cent in 2007 with Nigeria coming in best with a 115.32 per cent gain.

China, which received most of public attention in 2007, gained 69.83 per cent for the year ranking it seven out of the 26 markets.

The month of December saw 19 of the 26 developed world equity markets landing in negative territory, an improvement from the 24 developed markets that were down in November.

Losses were mostly modest in December although Iceland (-11.58 per cent) posted its second consecutive month of double digit-declines (-15.48 per cent for November).

Canada rebounded from its double-digit November loss (-11.17 per cent) to post a 2.69 per cent gain in December.

Luxembourg was the best developed market performer last month, gaining 3.83 per cent.

As for sectors, nine of the 10 sectors posted losses in December compared to just seven in November. Both figures stand in sharp contrast to October and September, when all ten sectors were up.

The Energy sector posted a strong 5.41 per cent December gain, with the US energy sector performing the best, the agency said.

Conversely, Consumer Discretionary was the worst performing sector last month, declining 3.26per cent, with US issues hit the hardest.

Growth (-0.97per cent) outperformed Value (-1.81per cent) though both were negative for the month, said Standard&Poor's.

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