Stock Exchange, Seoul the Queen 2025. Madrid, Sao Paulo and Milan follow

The Seoul Stock Exchange beat all stock markets in 2025, with the Kospi index jumping 76% on the back of stocks linked to the boom in artificial intelligence and those in the defence sector. In second place was Madrid, the best list in the Old Continent (+49.3%), ahead of Milan (+31.5%), ousted from the podium of the world's main stock exchanges by São Paulo, whose Ibovespa reference index rose 34%.

In Seoul, the chip giants Samsung Electronics (+125%) and Sk Hynix (+270%) performed spectacularly, as did data centre energy-related stocks such as the generation component supplier Doosan Enerbility, including nuclear power, or the power transformer manufacturer Hyosung Heavy Industries, which quadrupled its value.

On the other hand, geopolitical tensions and the US policy review fuelled the rally in defence companies, with Hanwha Aerospace and Hanwa Ocean stocks rising by around 200%. In Europe, it was mainly banks, to which both Madrid and Milan have a lot of exposure, and defence stocks that boosted the stock markets, as did mining companies, especially those related to precious metals and copper, a fundamental mineral for the electrification of data centres.

In EuropeMadrid and Milan outperformed Frankfurt (+23%), London (+21.5%) and a Paris (+10.2%) penalised by political uncertainty, in Asia Tokyo (+26.2%) and Hong Kong (+27.8%), as did Wall Street, with the Nasdaq up 21.3% and the S&P 500 by 17.2% overcoming fears of a bursting of the alleged artificial intelligence bubble and resisting the unpredictable and disruptive moves of President Donald Trump.

Overall, the Msci World index, the main benchmark of global stock market performance, rose by 20%, the Msci Asia-Pacific index by 25% while the pan-European Stoxx 600 index gained almost 17%, its best result since 2021.