While the drastic drop in oil prices caused many stock markets to end 2014 on a bear run, the story was different for the U.S. and Chinese bourses which ended up on top as the year closed.

The U.S. closed 2014 as its sixth consecutive year of gains for its stock market with the Standard & Poor's 500 Index up 11.4 percent. If dividends are added, the finish is 13.7 percent higher, reports AP.

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Cameron Hinds, Well Fargo Private Bank's regional chief investment officer, said the great year for economic growth in the U.S. was translated into higher corporate profits.

Despite the Dow Jones Industrial Averaging declining by 160 points or 0.9 percent to 17,823.07 on Wednesday, it still finished the year higher by 7.5 percent, although it was behind Nasdaq and S&P 500. Nasdaq went up 13.4 percent in 2014 in spite of the 41.39 points to 4,736.05 or 0.9 percent it shed on trading on the last day of the year.

Meanwhile, Asian giant China is the outstanding global equity performer with its CSI300 Index up by almost 50 percent as 2014 ended. The enviable growth rate was the result of hopes for more policy stimulus and the greater access of foreigner to Chinese stocks, reports the Guardian.

A big gainer is the merged company resulting in a US$26-billion train manufacturer after the corporate wedding in December of China CNR and CSR Corp.

Analysts are optimistic that 2015 would still be a good year for the American stock market, but they foresee slower growth between 4 and 6 percent.

Among the major losers for 2014 are oil which suffered its worst performance in six years and ended the year down by 45 percent.

Another big loser is the rouble, the Russian currency, which ended 2014 down 43 percent from January, making it Russia's weakest year since the communist country defaulted in 1998.

Tagsstock market