Global market winners and losers of 2013

Matthew Boesler at Business Insider tallies the market returns for 2013 and concludes that the Nikkei 225 and the S&P 500 stock indices were the best performers among the major asset classes, having risen 57 percent and 31 percent respectively.

Boesler also noted that the dollar-yen exchange rate saw a substantial rise of 22 percent, but did not note that this tempered the performance of the Nikkei 225. In US-dollar terms, the Nikkei 225 rose 29 percent, thus actually slightly underperforming the S&P 500.

According to Boesler, gold and US Treasuries were the worst performers, both losing money for the year. Emerging markets, including the Shanghai Composite, also lost money.