London - About $4 trillion has been wiped off the value of
world stocks this month on concerns the eurozone debt crisis is spreading to
Italy and Spain and hurting Europe's banking system, and the global economy is
falling into recession.
The sum wiped off the MSCI All-Country World Index - about
one-seventh of its value - is almost equivalent to the size of the combined
economies of Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland and Greece.
The sell-off this week knocked nearly $1.6 trillion off the
market capitalisation of the global benchmark after last week's $2.5 trillion
loss.
The valuation of the benchmark is currently $24.84 trillion.
The US S&P 500 SPX alone has lost more than $710bn this week after losing $850bn the previous week, while European shares measured by the MSCI Europe have lost almost $500bn this week.