This chart
published at the Economist shows the best and worst returns from Corporations
for the last decade. Ten years ago a share in Apple would have set you back
$12.50. Yesterday, thanks partly to recent news of record profits for the final
quarter of 2011, the technology giant’s share price rose above $500 for the
first time. A hundred dollars invested in Apple in February 2002, around the
time it unveiled its redesigned iMac, would have swelled to almost $4,000
today. The same investment in Sberbank, Russia’s biggest state-owned bank,
would now be worth more than $3,700. The decade has not been so kind to a
number of Western banks. Stakes of $100 in Allied Irish Banks and AIG would be
worth $1.33 and $2.21 respectively. Because this chart looks at the 200 biggest
existing companies that also existed in 2002, it necessarily ignores both new
and recently bankrupt firms.