World share markets have so far regained half their losses

As world stock markets have been rising since February 2009, and the dominant US markets since March 2009, the data below shows it is an appropriate moment to make a balance sheet of how far this recovery has gone, In summary it may be noted that approximately half of the falls since the lows in early 2009 have been regained.

According to the monthly data of the World Federation of Exchanges the international share markets of affiliated exchanges, which count for very close to the totality of world stock market capitalisation, peaked at a combined value of $63.0 trillion in October 2007. This then fell to $28.7 trillion in February 2009 - a drop of $34.4 trillion or 54.6%.

The capitalisation of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) declined from a peak of $16.6 trillion in June 2007 to a trough of $7.9 trillion in March 2009 - a fall of $8.7 trillion or 52.1%.

From the trough in February 2009 to the latest monthly figures for January 2010 the capitalisation of world exchanges had recovered to $46.8 trillion - $16.4 trillion, or 26.0%, below their peak levels.

The New York Stock Exchange had recovered to a market capitalisation of $12.2 trillion - $4.4 trillion, or 26.4%, below its peak.

In short both for world exchanges and for the NYSE by the end of January 2010 almost exactly half the losses since world share markets reached their peak have been regained.

It, of course, remains to be seen in the future whether the second half will be regained and over what period.

The world data is shown in the chart below.

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This article originally appeared on the blog Key Trends in Globalisation.