The aggregate net worth of the world’s richest billionaires stood at $3.7 trillion at the market close on 31 December, according to the ranking. The biggest gains came in the technology industry, which rose by 28 per cent during the year. Of the 300 people who appeared on the final ranking of 2013, only 70 registered a net loss for the 12-month period, the report said.

Bill Gates, the founder and chairman of Microsoft, was the year’s biggest gainer. The tycoon’s fortune increased by a sum of $15.8 billion to $78.5 billion. Gates recaptured the title of world’s richest person on 16 May last year from Mexican investor Carlos Slim.

The report noted that the rise in fortunes for such people happened as equity markets rose in 2013 at the fastest clip since 2009; the MSCI World Index of developed countries’ shares rose by 24 per cent in 2013, while the S&P 5000 Index rose by 30 per cent and the Stoxx Europe 600 gained by 17 per cent.

The report noted that Sheldon Adelson, founder of Las Vegas Sands, the world’s largest casino company, was the second-biggest gainer in 2013, adding $14.4 billion to his net worth as the company’s shares rose 71 per cent.

Mexico’s Slim, meanwhile, lost $1.4 billion during 2013. His America Movil SAB, the largest mobile-phone operator in the Americas, dropped 12 per cent in the first three months of the year after Mexico’s Congress passed a bill to quash the billionaire’s market dominance. Slim is $51 billion ahead of Jorge Paulo Lemann, Latin America’s second-richest person and Brazil’s wealthiest.