Stock market returns in perspective

History does repeat itself

Total Returns (%)
Year Ireland US UK Europe
ISEQ S&P 500 All Share Stoxx 50
1970’s very volatile but ok overallThe oil crisis in 1973 and 1974 along with the global recession which ensued caused rampant inflation and soaring interest rates – a difficult environment for companies and therefore the stockmarket. However returns per annum, when looked at over the decade were reasonabley good.
1970 -8 4 -3 -9
1971 43 14 48 28
1972 12 19 16 16
1973 -19 -15 -29 -8
1974 -51 -26 -51 -23
1975 121 37 152 44
1976 -5 24 2 -6
1977 113 -7 49 24
1978 26 7 8 24
1979 -9 18 11 15
compound pa
in the 1970’s 11 6 10 9
Excellent returns in the 1980’s 1980 18 32 35 15
Even with a global stockmarket crash in 1987, the 1980’s was a muchbetter decade for investors. 1981 -2 -5 14 -10
1982 -7 21 29 6
1983 86 22 29 22
1984 -3 6 32 1
1985 61 32 20 80
1986 59 18 27 45
1987 -9 5 8 -12
1988 46 17 12 33
1989 39 31 36 27
compound pa
in the 1980’s 25 17 24 17
And in the 1990’s 1990 -27 -3 -10 -22
Despite the gulf war in1991 and the Asian crisis in 1998 stockmarketsdelivered an excellent compound per annum return during this decade. 1991 24 31 21 16
1992 -8 7 21 3
1993 71 10 28 39
1994 2 1 -6 -8
1995 26 37 24 14
1996 26 23 17 23
1997 56 33 22 37
1998 27 28 14 32
1999 2 21 24 46
compound pa
in the 1990’s 17 18 15 17
Battle to deliever same returns in the Millenium 2000 16 -9 -6 -3
We have seen a general downturn in economies at the start of the centurywith the whole 9/11 affair taking its toll on the marketplace before the Worldfell foul of the Techbubble collapse in 2002. The markets rallied toward acomback in 2003 and stayed positive until the more recent volatility we haveexperienced, which is a result of the worldwide Banking Crisis in 2007. Thiscoupled with our over dependance on the construction industry has had anextreme impact on Ireland in particular. 2001 1 -12 -13 -19
2002 -30 -23 -23 -36
2003 23 29 21 18
2004 25 11 13 9
2005 19 5 22 24
2006 28 16 17 18
2007 -26 5 5 10
2008 -66 -38 -30 -42
Where is the bottom and how strong will the recovery be this time? 2009 H1 15 5 1 1