Andrew Bolger at the Financial Times compiled data from the Swiss banking giant UBS to calculate the best- and worst-performing stock markets of 2014. The metric here is "total return" (i.e., including dividends and such) in dollar terms, so you may get slightly different results if the US dollar isn't your currency of choice:
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(Sources: Financial Times graphic using UBS data)
The big loser, Russia, won't come as a huge surprise to anyone. But the winner, Egypt, might. The incredibly robust performance of the Egyptian stock market isn't due to anything particularly awesome happening in 2014. Instead it's a reminder that the best way to have an incredible stock rally in one year is often to have a disastrous previous year — in Egypt's case including not just bad economic news, but a coup and wave of violent political repression.
