According to the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), in 2012 the global equity market capitalization grew 15.1% to about US$55 trillion, even though the volume of transactions dropped by 22%. The best performance in 2012 was observed in the Americas (+17.2%) followed by Asia-Pacific (+15.4%) and EAME (+11.6%).
Here are the largest domestic equity market capitalizations at year-end 2012 and 2011:
Brazil’s BM&F/Bovespa was the 14th largest, with $1.227 trillion in market cap.
Source: WFE
There are also only around 450 stocks on the Brazilian exchange vs 600, 10 years ago. Brazil is not a public market play . . .
Hong Kong Stock Exchange surpassed Shanghai in 2012 in terms of market capitalization.