Global stock markets lost $US5.2 trillion

From correspondents in New York

February 09, 2008 07:56am

Article from: Agence France-Presse

GLOBAL stock markets were hit with a collective loss of $US5.2 trillion ($5.83 trillion) in January as investors scurried for cover in the face of economic uncertainty, a report reveals.

Standard & Poor's, a US credit rating agency that manages a number of global stock indexes, said 50 of the 52 main global equity markets lost ground in January.

Emerging markets fell an average of 12.44 per cent and developed markets lost 7.83 per cent to register one of the worst ever starts to a new year, S&P said as it released its global stock market review.

"There were few safe havens in January as 50 of the 52 global equity markets ended the month in negative territory, with 25 of them posting double- digit losses,'' said Howard Silverblatt, a senior analyst at S&P.

"High volatility, quick turnarounds in both the market and investor sentiment, and drastically lower stock prices prevailed throughout the month,'' he said overnight.

All 26 developed equity markets posted negative returns in January, with 16 losing at least 10 per cent of their value.

The only markets to see gains were in Morocco (up 10.17 per cent) and Jordan (up 3.11 per cent).

Turkey was hit hardest during the month losing 22.70 per cent followed by China (21.40 per cent), Russia (16.12 per cent) and India (16.00 per cent).

The decline in the United States was comparatively mild at 6.07 per cent, but German shares slumped 13.7 per cent and French stocks lost 12.3 per cent.

British share prices gave back 8.8 per cent in January and Japanese stocks lost 4.5 per cent, according to S&P, which calculated the figures on a US dollar basis.