Since the depths of the global financial crisis in 2009, the S&P 500 has increased by more than 200 per cent in Aussie dollar terms, trouncing the local bourse, which has increased by 79 per cent over the same period. But Australia is a higher dividend paying market, I hear you say. Well, once dividends are taken into account, the gap remains almost as wide, as the following chart incorporating total returns illustrates.

Since the depths of the global financial crisis in 2009, the S&P 500 has increased by more than 200 per cent in Aussie dollar terms, trouncing the ASX. Credit:John McDuling

What gives? There are myriad factors contributing to America's recent outperformance in stocks. Chief among them: the colossal, unprecedented stimulus from the country's central bank, the US Federal Reserve. For most of the post-crisis era, the Fed has been injecting billions of dollars' liquidity into the country's financial system, much of which has found its way into stocks. Only just now is the Fed taking baby steps toward withdrawing it. Although the RBA has been cutting interest rates, Australia hasn't experienced anything like this. Yet.

But there could be another reason why Australia's sharemarket hasn't kept pace with America's since the depths of the crisis: the lack of truly disruptive, global businesses in general, and the glaring absence of a technology sector specifically.

The three biggest contributors to the S&P 500 rise in index points since 2009 are Apple, Google and Microsoft (not far behind them is Amazon, in ninth place). Giant tech stocks have been a major part of the US market recovery. These companies are truly global, and as a result are having a significant effect on economies like Australia's: disrupting established industries, and often paying very little in tax. This invariably feeds through back to both stockmarkets. At the moment though, there is huge global appetite among investors for exposure to tech, which can't really be found in Australia.