If someone had told you at the start of 2012 to invest in a country with an ailing, anti-capitalist president who regularly seizes company assets, you could be forgiven for quickly walking away.

And yet the country involved, Venezuela, is home to the best-performing stock market of the year. It has jumped nearly 300% despite the policies of President Hugo Chávez – or perhaps, as some observers have suggested, it was because investors were expecting him to step down during the year due to his treatment for cancer.

Yet he won another election in October, by boosting spending and lifting the country's economy. The central bank said last week that Venezuela's economy grew by 5.5% in 2012 as a consequence of government outlay on homes for the poor and pensions for the elderly.

Since the election, some of the shine has come off but Venezuela has still beaten other global markets by some margin.

Another notable performance came from Greece, as the country's widely expected exit from the eurozone was averted for the moment, and it received the necessary tranches of bailout cash. So the Athens market rose 32.5% last year.

Elsewhere, the Hang Seng added 22.6%, the Nikkei 225 climbed 22% and the Shanghai market 4.5%. India added 25.7%, South Africa was 23% better and Russia rose 10.5%.

The German market outperformed all of those, with the Dax adding 29.5%. But the rest of Europe was more mixed, which is hardly a surprise given the continuing worries about the eurozone. France's Cac finished 15.5% higher, Italy rose 7.8%, but Spain was down 5% on fear of contagion.

In the US, the Dow Jones Industrial average added nearly 6%, the S&P more than 11% and the Nasdaq composite more than 12%.

Finally, the FTSE 100 finished up 5.84%.