The Colombo stock exchange, the best-performing stock market of 2009, has slumped to become the second-worst, only just ahead of Bangladesh.

The table, compiled by Bespoke Investment Group, looks at year to date stock market returns for 78 countries.

Sri Lanka’s bourse saw the second biggest loss of -7.94% compared to last year, placing them 77th on the list.

The Island blames the slump on over regulation and quoted brokers as saying that a lack of foreign inflows is also to blame for the lack of growth.

"Of the 78 countries analysed, 59 (75 percent) are in the black for the year, while 19 are in the red. Twelve countries have posted double digit gains already in 2012, with Argentina leading the way at 18.11 percent. Russia ranks second with a gain of 13.70% percent followed by Hungary in third and Greece (yes, Greece) in fourth," Bespoke Investment Group (BIG) said.

"The US currently ranks 33rd on the list with a gain of 4.73 percent year to date. The US ranks fourth among G7 countries behind Germany (10.88 percent), Italy (6.77 percent) and France (6.44 percent). The UK has been the worst performing G7 country so far in 2012 with a gain of 4 percent."

"Last year the BRICs were significant underperformers versus the rest of the world, but they’ve bounced back so far in 2012. As mentioned above, Russia is up 13.70 percent year to date, which is the best of the BRICs. Brazil ranks second with a gain of 10.92%, India isn’t far behind at 10.50 percent, and China ranks fourth with a gain of 5.44 percent.”