Market Cap Leaders Across Emerging Economies

This chart ranks the total market capitalization of all listed companies in major emerging economies (as of Sept 2023), using Wikipedia’s definition of “emerging markets” and data from MarketCapWatch. The figures include companies listed overseas but headquartered in each country.

Key Takeaways:

• China dominates with a staggering $19.07 T, over 3× India’s $5.13 T, reflecting the scale of its corporate sector despite slower GDP growth in recent years.
• Taiwan, driven largely by TSMC, holds $2.79 T, punching far above its GDP weight.
• Saudi Arabia and South Korea are neck‑and‑neck at just over $2.1 T, each led by a single corporate giant (Aramco and Samsung Electronics, respectively).
• Brazil, Indonesia, and Thailand form the next tier, each between $0.6–0.98 T, showing the depth of their domestic markets.
• Russia’s figure is frozen at 2022 levels due to market isolation; Iran is excluded for lack of reliable data.
• Smaller markets like Nigeria and Egypt remain under $50 B, highlighting the vast disparity within the “emerging” category.

Analysis: The data underscores that “emerging market” is an umbrella term covering vastly different scales—from trillion‑dollar giants integrated into global supply chains to frontier‑like markets with limited liquidity. Market cap concentration is also striking: in several countries, one or two mega‑caps dominate the national total, making these markets more vulnerable to sector‑specific shocks