Chart of the week: the listings race | beyondbrics

Emerging market stock exchanges have seen their capitalisations soar over the past decade, even after allowing for the setbacks of the last four years.

But the often-explosive growth in valuations has not always been matched by big expansions in the numbers of listed companies. While some exchanges have indeed seen healthy increases in listings  – notably Seoul, Shenzhen and Mumbai – others have seen little change or decline, as in Mexico City, Sao Paulo and Johannesburg. Why? Chart of the week takes a look?

According to the latest data of the World Federation of Exchanges in June 2012, there were approximately 46,000 listed companies in the world, about 40 per cent more than ten years earlier. Global stock market capitalisation more than doubled over the decade to nearly $50 trillion in June 2012.

* username: rupertbu