Top Performing Emerging Market Stocks for 2010

Emerging markets are increasingly making their global presence felt. Formerly "third-world" countries like China, Brazil and India were barely operational at the local level back in the 1980s and 1990s. But once they embraced capitalism and did a little political restructuring, their financial markets stabilized. And now, their credit rankings are high enough for them to issue debt in their own currencies.

And with globalization has come greater demand for commodities -- a boon for exporter nations like Brazil. Emerging market nations have been able to reinvest their profits domestically, adding fortification to their own economies.

At the rate they're going, emerging markets will outperform the global GDP at large by over 2%, and developed nations by a whopping 4%. They also comprise a full 85% of the world's population, and currently contribute 34% to the global GDP, a percentage that will only continue to grow.

Not that emerging markets don't come with their fair share of risks. Bureaucratic red-tape, censorship, corruption, and inexperience are just a few of the problems that could present at any time. But an investor who proceeds with caution could see his emerging markets portfolio pay off in spades. (Click here to access free interactive tools to analyze these ideas.)

Here's a list of 2010's top performing emerging market stocks. Is there more upside to these names? What do you think?

The list has been sorted by annual performance.

Interactive Chart: Press Play to compare monthly an annual returns for all stocks mentioned above.

Kapitall's Eben Esterhuizen and Alicia Sellitti do not own shares of any companies mentioned.