Economic growth still global concern

The same problems that have hit Wall Street, including concerns about faltering credit quality and fears of economic slowdown, have weighed on global stocks.

In particular, emerging markets, which logged spectacular gains in recent years, have lost some investors amid signs of trouble.

The pullback has been swift. In January, the world's equity markets lost $5.2 trillion.

The decline among emerging markets, which generally saw bigger returns in recent years than developed markets, was 12.44 percent, according to Standard & Poor's.

Developed markets lost 7.83 percent last month.

Markets that had been making sure-footed advances showed declines.

China lost 21.4 percent, Indian stocks declined 16.0 percent, Russia lost 16.1 percent and Turkey had the steepest decline at 22.7 percent.

Only Morocco and Jordan registered gains in January, by S&P's count.

Wendy Trevisani, co-portfolio manager of the Thornburg International Value fund, said investors have to become more selective about where they put their money. Ignoring markets outside the U.S., especially developing ones, could mean investors miss unrivaled opportunity.

"With the early stages of the credit crisis in the U.S., there are certainly ramifications globally," she said.

"You have to be more sensitive to valuation simply because the market is being more sensitive to valuation."

Still, she sees opportunity. "You can get growth in China and in Latin America that you just can't get in the developed markets," she said.

Some companies are betting that weary investors will seek investments abroad, eventually.

WisdomTree Investments Inc. planned last week to list an exchange-traded fund, or ETF, that gives U.S. investors access to local shares in the Indian market.

"I would just say that what's going on India is going on in equity markets around the world," said Luciano Siracusano, WisdomTree's director of research.

He said that while WisdomTree doesn't try to predict what will happen in the Indian markets, many outside analysts see the economy there as likely to continue its rapid growth.

"What's different in India is the Indian economy is growing much faster than even the U.S. economy and even the world economy," he said.