India 4th biggest loser among emerging markets in Jan: S&P

NEW DELHI: Having emerged as one of the top performers in the equity markets in 2007, India became the fourth worst performer among all the emerging markets in the first month of 2008, with a loss of close to 16 per cent, according to financial market data provider Standard and Poor's.

"If investors thought the market could only go up, January's wake-up call pulled them back into reality," S&P said in its monthly update on world equity markets.

The global stock markets lost a whopping $5.2 billion as bearish sentiment prevailed across both emerging and developed markets to mark one of the worst ever starts to a new year, S&P said.

"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," S&P's Senior Index Analyst Howard Sliverblatt said.