Investors around the world know that stock prices tanked last month during a global sell-off. Now Standard & Poor's has figured out just how deep the market losses were: $5.2 trillion US.

Emerging markets lost 12.4 per cent of their value in January, while developed markets lost 7.8 per cent, the ratings agency said Friday.

S&P/TSX composite index three-month chart

"There were few safe havens in January as 50 of the 52 global equity markets ended the month in negative territory, with 25 of them posting double-digit losses," said Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at Standard & Poor’s.

"High volatility, quick turnarounds in both the market and investor sentiment, and drastically lower stock prices prevailed throughout the month," he said.

Markets in Morocco and Jordan managed to rise last month, with gains of 10.2 per cent and 3.1 per cent, respectively.

Worst off were Turkey and China, with one-month losses of 22.7 per cent and 21.4 per cent.

The total U.S. stock market shed 6.1 per cent of its value last month, better than Britain's 8.9 per cent decline and drops of 12.3 per cent in France and 13.7 per cent in Germany.

Japan's 4.5 per cent loss ranked it among the better performers.

The Standard & Poor's calculations are based in U.S. dollars. The S&P/TSX composite index, which tracks more than 260 of the biggest stocks in Canada, lost 4.9 per cent in January. That would translate into a loss of about $100 billion in market capitalization.