Energy Stocks Outperformed Market Indices in 2010

According to a new IHS Herold report, economic expansion and growth in North American oil stocks made 2010 a "wonderful year' for energy investors.

Despite a poor start, 2010 finished as a "wonderful year" for energy investors, with more than 65 percent of oil and gas stocks delivering positive returns last year, according to the IHS Herold 2010 Energy Peer Group Stock Market Performance Report, which was released by IHS in January. Driven by economic growth, crude prices, which hit bottom in late May 2010 at around $65 per barrel, rose steadily and consistently through the second half of the year, and took oil company shares with them.

The median gain for the 503 stocks covered in the report was 21 percent, which, while it did not match the record-setting 59 percent gain posted in the 2009 IHS report, did outperform the market indices of nearly all Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Total capitalization jumped by more than $300 billion, further reducing the severe losses the sector incurred in 2008 the report said, but did not extinguish them.

Read more about energy stock performance in 2010 .