The Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) was the fifth best-performing stock exchange in the world for 2019, according to a report from Bloomberg.

One year ago, the JSE received global recognition when it was recognised — yet again — as the world’s best-performing stock exchange for 2018.

The JSE had a return for the year of 34.26 per cent, placing it just between stock exchanges in Romania and Brazil.

News about the best-performing stock market this year is not as abundant as last year, but, according to Bloomberg, the top-five performing stock exchanges in the world for 2019 were:

• Athex — Greece, with a return of 49.97 per cent

• RTS-Russia Trading System — Russia, with a return of 44.93 per cent

• S&P Merval TR ARS — Argentina, with a return of 37.56 per cent

• Bucharest BET — Romania, with a return of 35.13 per cent

JSE Market Index — Jamaica, with a return of 34.26 per cent.

Just below Jamaica was Brazil’s IBOVESPA Index in sixth place with a return of 31.58 per cent. At seventh position was Ireland’s ISEQ All with a return of 31.09 per cent.

The worst-performing stock markets included the Nigeria Stock Exchange, with a negative return of -14.6 per cent; Zambia’s Lusaka Stock Exchange, with a negative return of 18.75 per cent; and Lebanon’s BLOM Stock Index, with a negative return of -19.57.

But the JSE performed even better last year when Bloomberg reported that the JSE was the best-performing stock market in the world.

The 2018 report said that, in addition to its performance, what was also noteworthy was that the island’s stock exchange is also one of the world’s most “obscure”.

The article noted: “It doesn’t take much investment to make a tiny market boom, and the total value of the 37 stocks in the main Jamaica index is less than US$11 billion, smaller than the valuation of Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc.”

In October, the JSE got another international boost when Financial Times gave recognition to Jamaica’s stock market success story in a piece entitled ‘Jamaican Stock Exchange rallies to become world’s best performing’.

The article examined the stock exchange’s number one rating among “94 bourses tracked by Bloomberg over the past 12 months” against the backdrop of the island’s dramatic economic U-turn in recent years.

But even if the JSE didn’t make it as the world’s top-performing stock exchange, 2019 was still a banner year, as in November the Jamaican flag was placed atop the New York Stock Exchange building in the United States in honour of the Jamaica Stock Exchange (JSE) and its successful performance over the past years.

And then in December the Nasdaq ran a welcoming message to the JSE as the local stock exchange started using its trading technology, a move which should strengthen the entity’s position on becoming First World-ready.