(Trinidad Guardian) It’s official. The Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange is the fifth best-performing stock market in the world for 2011, according to a report on Wednesday in the Business Insider publication, which stated that most equity investors around the world were “licking their wounds from a tough 2011.” In an analysis of the yearly returns of 100 global stock exchanges, the publication found that close to 90 per cent had registered negative returns for the year, about ten per cent of the stock markets were in positive territory. According to the Business Insider, the top five best-performing stock markets in the world for 2011 were: the Caracas Stock Exchange, which was up by 80.8 per cent, the Mongolia Stock Exchange up 32.6 per cent; Panama up by 29.2 per cent, the Tehran Stock Exchange, which was also up 29.2 per cent and the Trinidad and Tobago Stock Exchange, which was up by 19.3 per cent when the survey was conducted.
The Composite Index advanced by 0.15 points, or by 0.01 per cent to close at 1,002.74, which means that the index was 19.99 per cent on Wednesday than at the start of the year. Contacted for comment, the general manager of the TTSE, Wain Iton, acknowledged that the local stock market has performed well this year. But he said: “I am still not happy that we do not have the volume, number of transactions and liquidity that would make such a performance so much more meaningful. A true market needs more depth and liquidity.” In order to deepen and widen the local stock market, Iton said the TTSE has embarked on a “continuous pursuit of new quality listings,” pointing to the Initial Public Offering of First Citizens, the 100 per cent state-owned banking group.
Last week, First Citizens reported that its after-tax profit for the 12 months ending September 30, 2011 grew by 14.6 per cent to close at TT$718.2 million, up from TT$626.7 million in the previous year. Rounding off the top ten best-performing stock markets in the world were the Jamaica Stock Exchange, which was up by 12.8 per cent, the Tanzania Stock Exchange, which was up by 12 per cent, Botswana up by 8.8 per cent, the Dow Jones Industrial Average up by 6.3 per cent and the Philippines Stock Exchange, which was up by 3.8 per cent.
