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Investing March 3, 2006
Global Equity Retreats from January Advance
March 3, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - After a 5% advance
in January, Global Equity Markets fell 0.24% for February,
according to data from Standard & Poor's
(S&P).
Reported by Rebecca Moore
Europe again posted the best regional returns during the month, with a gain, the S&P data showed. However, that was not enough to offset the Asia Pacific and North American losses of 1.55% and 0.23% respectively.
One reason for the market drop:“Of all the developed world currencies, only the Japanese yen, Singapore dollar and Canadian dollar rose against the US dollar in February,” said Nicholas Aninos, analyst at S&P’s Index Services, in a press release.
The European smaller-cap Extended Market Index (EMI) rose 2.22% for the month, which was the best regional return, large or small cap. The next strongest regional performance was the European larger-cap Primary Market Index (PMI), which gained 0.02% for the month.
Plummeting from its 11.09% gain in January, the S&P/Citigroup Emerging Market Index only managed a 0.80% gain for February. European Emerging markets led the way in February with a 5.59% gain.
The sectors as defined by GICS that posted the best returns in January posted the worst returns in February, S&P said. The Energy sector lost 8.08% during the month while the Materials sector lost 1.54%. The best performing sectors were Utilities and Financials, which gained 2.63% and 2.11% respectively during February.
The S&P/Citigroup World by Numbers report for February can be accessed at www.standardandpoors.com .