In what has to be one of the more remarkable performances for a benchmark equity index over a 15 month span, the Venezuelan Stock Market Index is now up over 200% since the beginning of 2011. The index was at 65.79K on January 1 2011 and just recently it crossed the 200K mark. To add some perspective, we'll put the Venezuelan Stock Market index up alongside Apple's stock price.
As we've mentioned several times before, the main impetus for the gains in Venezuela's equity market is Chavez's cancer. In what we've come to call the "oncological boom", investors in Venezuela have a morbid hope that Chavez's passing will make way for a more business friendly and free market oriented regime. This expectation has resulted in equity performance completely outpacing gdp growth. Of course, the IMF is unlikely to have factored a premature death by Chavez into their estimates.
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