Forget about stock picking; perhaps country picking is a more profitable exercise. Bespoke Investment Group pointed out that China and India have taken two very different paths this year, despite the fact that both are emerging market behemoths often lumped together under the BRIC acronym.

Now, on first glance, you might think that China is the outperformer of the two. The country is blessed with a far more advanced infrastructure and certainly garners more attention for its economic successes. But, as Bespoke noted, India is the winner. The Sensex 30 index has risen 11.2 per cent in 2010, against a 20.6 per cent decline for China's Shanghai stock exchange composite index.

The two indexes had been mingling until the end of February, when they suddenly parted ways. At least two major figures for the two indexes look pretty similar, though. India trades at 19-times earnings, according to Bloomberg, while China trades at 18-times earnings. India yields 1.3 per cent while China yields 1.9 per cent.