World stock markets are volatile due to lingering uncertainty about efforts to shore up the global financial system. Five facts explaining state of world stock markets and equities in context:
1.
When the internet-stock bubble burst at the beginning of this decade, MSCI's all-country world stock index lost around 51 percent of its value from peak to trough.
In the latest drop, the index has fallen 58 percent from an all-time high in November 2007 to a new cycle low on Tuesday.
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2.
The internet-stock bubble decline took slightly more than 30 months. The current fall has taken only 16 months.
3.
A further loss of less than 4.5 percent from current levels will take the MSCI all-country index below the internet bubble trough of 169.47 on Oct. 9, 2002.
That would bring it to levels not seen since 1995, before both the Asian and Russian crises.
READ: Stock Market 2009 Predictions - Where would it be in Feb-March 2009?
4.
The all-country index fell 43.5 percent last year, by far its worst performance in its more than 20-year history. The second worst was 20.5 percent in 2002.
Since the start of this year, the index has fallen 22.1 percent in just over two months.
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5.
Contrary to historical patterns, it is the developed markets that have suffered the most this year. MSCI's main developed market index is down 22.7 percent; the emerging market benchmark has lost 16.3 percent.
