World Markets Watchlist: 2025 Wrap Up

All nine indexes on our world markets watch list posted gains in 2025. Canada’s TSX finished in the top spot with an annual gain of 28.3%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng finished in second with a gain of 27.8% while Japan’s Nikkei 225 finished third with a gain of 26.2%. On the opposite end, India’s BSE SENSEX posted the smallest gain of the year, at 9.1%.

To provide additional context on where these indexes stand relative to their historical peaks, the table below shows each index’s current value, all-time peak, the date of that peak, and how far it is from that record level.

World Indexes and Recent Recessions

Let’s start with a very recent chart with the latest recession. We’ve used February 3, 2020 for our start date (this is the official NBER recession start).

The chart below illustrates the comparative performance of world markets since March 9, 2009. The start date is arbitrary: The S&P 500, TSX, CAC 40 and BSE SENSEX hit their lows on March 9th, the Nikkei 225 on March 10th, the DAXK on March 6th, the FTSE on March 3rd, the Shanghai Composite on November 4, 2008, and the Hang Seng even earlier on October 27, 2008. However, by aligning on the same day and using a log-scale vertical axis, we get an excellent visualization of the relative performance. I’ve indexed each of the eight to 800 on the March 9th start date. The callout in the upper left corner shows the percent change from the start date to the latest weekly close.

Here is the same visualization, this time starting on October 9, 2007, a previous closing high for the S&P 500. This date is also approximately the mid-point of the range of market peaks, which started on June 1st for the CAC 40 and ended on January 8, 2008 for the SENSEX.