"The whole move last year was a move back to risk assets and one of the riskiest assets are emerging markets equities," PennyWise Investment managing director David Bassanese said.
Another element behind emerging markets equities' strong performance was that their economies were not as badly affected by the financial crisis as the United States, Europe and Japan, Bassanese said.
The iShares MSCI BRIC (Brazil, Russia, China and India) ETF, whose top holdings include energy giant Gazprom and Bank of China, was the top performer in the 12 months, surging 47.2 per cent.
The iShares Taiwan ETF rallied 37.45 per cent as the nation's trade relations with China improved.
The broader MSCI Emerging Markets ETF added 33.2 per cent.
The worst-performing Australian Securities Exchange-listed ETF in 2009 was the iShares MSCI Japan, which slumped 18.4 per cent.
