TOKYO, Dec. 21 (Kyodo) — Combined market capitalization of the world’s nine major stock exchanges in the United States, Europe and Asia has totaled $23.5 trillion so far this year, up $5.5 trillionfrom a year ago, a major Japanese business daily reported Sunday.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun said the rise is equivalent to 17% of the world’s gross domestic product, which came to $32 trillion last year.

”Monetary authorities worldwide have relaxed their credit reins, and this combined with growing expectations for an economic recovery, particularly in the U.S., caused more hedge funds and other investment money to shift from the bond to the equities market,” the report said.

It said that the market capitalization of the nine exchanges touched a low of $17 trillion in March before the war in Iraq but grew by $6.5 trillion in the last nine months.

During the past year, the daily said, the New York Stock Exchange saw its market capitalization jump $2 trillion, or more than 20%, and the figures for both the tech-heavy Nasdaq market and the Tokyo Stock Exchange increased by about $800 billion, respectively.

Hong Kong and Frankfurt boosted their market capitalization by about 50%, according to the Nihon Keizai.