Emerging market flight as recession fears build

By Jeremy Gaunt, European Investment Correspondent

LONDON (Reuters) - Fear of global recession battered stock markets again on Thursday while a flight from emerging market debt and stocks helped push the dollar to a two-year high against major currencies.

European shares lost around 2.5 percent, Asian shares hit four-year lows and Wall Street looked set for a poor start.

Investors were also focussing on major company earnings reports, fearful that the worst financial crisis in 80 years and a deteriorating global economy would combine to decimate corporate profits.

Emerging markets were particularly under the gun.

MSCI's main emerging market stock index was down 4.3 percent on the day, hitting a nearly four-year low after major losses on Wednesday. It has lost nearly 35 percent of its value so far this month.

Emerging market sovereign debt spreads blew out to more than 830 basis points over U.S. Treasury yields, a gap not seen since late 2002.

The cost of insurance against sovereign debt default in countries such as South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, Russia and Kazakhstan has soared over the past two days.

"There is now little argument that the world economy will experience a period of sub-par growth, and a recession in several advanced economies looks increasingly likely," Goldman Sachs said in a research note.