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.