Standard & Poor's, the world's leading index provider, announced that the world's emerging and developed equity markets were hit hard during the first quarter of 2008, losing 10.56% and 8.95% respectively during the first three months of the year.

"Near record commodity prices, 10-year U.S. Treasury rates approaching their lowest level, a struggling dollar, and the potential global impact of a perceived U.S. recession all fuelled market volatility and uncertainty during the first quarter," says Howard Silverblatt, Senior Index Analyst at Standard & Poor's.

For the first three months of the year, all but one developed equity market posted a positive return. Of the 26 developed markets, only Luxembourg (+2.09%) gained ground during the first quarter. The hardest hit developed equity markets over the first three months of the year were Iceland (-32.36%), Hong Kong (-18.07%) and Greece (-14.90%).

As for emerging world equity markets, 15 of the 26 countries lost ground during the quarter. The best performing markets during the first quarter were Morocco (+23.81%), Pakistan (+10.25%), and Chile (+8.50%). The worst performers during the first three months were Turkey (-36.62%), India (-28.55%) and China (-24.65%).

For the month of March, world equity markets lost 1.09% and emerging equity markets fell 5.11%. Eight of the ten sectors posted losses with only Industrials (0.19%) and Consumer Staples (2.65%) posting gains. Growth (-1.31%) underperformed Value (-0.87%) in March.