The Decades best and worst Returns from large Corporations

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.