The sharemarket has been a great place to be in 2017, at least thus far.

Global equities had their best first quarter in five years, and US stocks have enjoyed their strongest start since 2015.

The chart below breaks down most of the major regions, and it's clear that while developed bourses have done well, it's the emerging markets bloc that has really outperformed.

The MSCI emerging market index is up 11 per cent over the past three months, thanks to powerful performances from sharemarkets in Brazil, India, Taiwan and South Korea. Chinese mainland stocks have done less well, but Hong Kong's Hang Seng is one of the best. Not all bourses have done well: Russia's MICEX is off by more than 10 per cent in 2017.

Part of the emerging markert story is a weaker US dollar, as the greenback pulls back from its post-US election jump. The JP Morgan emerging markets currency index is up 3.8 per cent, which has provided an extra boost to the greenback-denominated MSCI equities index.

But the outlook for global economic growth looks positive, UBS economists say, which should support and extend the "reflation" trade.

"The weight of 'hard' data continues to show improvement in almost all regions," the UBS team write as they upgrade their forecasts for growth across the developed and developing world.

"Even as some of the recent exuberance likely dissipates from the soft [confidence-based] economic data, it's possible the reflation trade may return with some vigour, albeit the extent of any retracement in the soft data will be key," the UBS team write.

"The upcoming French election, if the result was market friendly, may well provide that catalyst.

"Further, despite rich valuations across many asset classes, it appears more likely equity market earnings will rise, than inflation will fall, in the period immediately ahead."

Behind the impressive sharemarket headline numbers are some subtleties. For example, while the broad US S&P 500 is up 5.5 per cent, the tech-heavy Nasdaq index has jumped 10 per cent, while the smaller companies Russell 2000 is up only 2.1 per cent.

The small end of town on the ASX has also underperformed: 0.4 per cent so far this year for the Small Ordinaries, against the top 200's gain of 3.5 per cent.