The world’s developed equity markets incurred major losses in March, with only Denmark, Iceland, and Canada posting positive gains, according to Standard & Poor’s monthly review, The World by Numbers.
The S&P/Citigroup Developed World Index fell 1.98% in March, resulting in a .67% loss for the first quarter of 2005.
“While most developed markets may have been down in March, consumers are still doing their part for the world’s economy,” says Nicholas Aninos, analyst at S&P. “The Multiline Retail industry as defined by GICS(R) rose 4.57% in March, making it the best performing industry for the month. In addition, the Marine Transport industry and the industries within the Energy sector were still the best performers for the first quarter of 2005 by a good margin despite posting losses in March.”
The U.S. dollar strengthened in March against all currencies but the Canadian dollar, and for the first quarter of 2005, only the Icelandic Krona and South Korean Won gained against the U.S. dollar. Among emerging market currencies, the Argentine Peso, Jordanian Dinar and Egyptian Pound increased in dollar terms in March.
In a reversal of last month, Europe led the way down in March dropping 2.48%, with the Asia Pacific and North America regions losing 2.32% and 1.61% respectively. “Europe’s equity market performance in March may be a reflection of the state of their economy,” adds Aninos. “More European Union countries are stepping over the 3% of GDP budget deficit limit as they struggle to jump-start their economies.”
Even with its negative March returns, Europe is still in positive territory for the first quarter with a .91% gain. Asia Pacific and North America regions registered a 0.23% gain and a 1.73% loss respectively for the quarter.
Both the BMI Developed World Growth Index (-1.94%) and the BMI Developed World Value Index (-2.01%) lost ground in March. Individual country returns were evenly divided as half saw growth outperform value. For the first quarter, value gave up less ground than growth, -0.21% versus -1.41%. Style performance was evenly distributed among individual countries.