Emerging markets stocks and currencies plummeted on Monday, after the downgrade of the US’s credit rating by Standard & Poor’s.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index fell as much as 5 per cent during the day before recovering to close down 2.2 per cent, as negative momentum from last week’s sell-off was maintained by S&P’s downgrade.
Russia’s benchmark Micex index lost 5.5 per cent and the dollar-denominated RTS index dropped by 7.8 per cent in its afternoon session. Prague’s PX index fell by nearly 6 per cent. Brazil’s Bovespa index was down 5.5 per cent in mid-session, with Mexico’s IPC index off by nearly 3 per cent. South Africa’s JSE FTSE index also fell by nearly 3 per cent after losing 6.3 per cent last week.