Emerging-market stocks slumped the most in nearly four weeks as the U.S. Treasury’s warning that some banks will need “large amounts” of government aid revived concern that the global financial crisis won’t end anytime soon. Russia’s Micex index tumbled 3.8 percent as the World Bank forecast the economy will shrink 4.5 percent this year and Qatar’s Doha Securities Market 20 Index lost 4.9 percent after commodities slid. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index sank 3.7 percent to 569.42 as of 9:36 a.m. in London, paring its monthly rally to 14 percent, the biggest increase since 1993. Stocks declined worldwide after Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said some financial companies will need substantial assistance, even after the government allocated about 80 percent of $700 billion in aid approved by Congress. “There does seem to be a real sense now that the risk rally we have seen over the past couple of weeks is finally running out of steam,” Timothy Ash, head of emerging-market economics in London at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, wrote in an e-mailed note. Geithner’s warning “sets a decidedly downbeat stage for the start of the week,” he wrote. China stocks declined after Aluminum Corp. of China Ltd., the nation’s biggest producer of the metal, said it would be unprofitable in the first quarter. Baoshan Iron & Steel Co. fell 2.5 percent after posting 2008 profit that missed analysts’ estimates on falling prices and inventory writedowns. Turkey’s ISE National 100 Index fell 2.7 percent as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s governing party lost votes in an election for the first time in his seven-year rule because of the economy’s contraction and record unemployment. Akbank TAS, the biggest Turkish bank by market value, retreated 2.4 percent and Turkiye Garanti Bankasi AS, a lender part-owned by General Electric Co., lost 3.3 percent. March Rally The MSCI index had gained on speculation credit markets were starting to recover after the Treasury unveiled a $1 trillion plan to buy toxic assets from banks. Financial companies were the biggest drag on emerging-market stocks today, falling 5.3 percent as a group. India’s ICICI Bank Ltd. retreated 11 percent, helping send the nation’s benchmark Bombay Stock Exchange Sensitive Index to a 4.2 percent loss. Geithner, who appeared yesterday on the ABC News program “This Week” and NBC’s “Meet the Press,” said the Treasury has about $135 billion left in a financial-stability fund while declining to say whether he will request additional money. “Inevitably the short-term moves in markets will be determined by information coming out of Washington,” said Jeff Chowdhry, the London-based head of emerging-market equities at F&C Asset Management, which oversees about $140 billion. “The market has run very, very hard the last month. In an environment when the economic data continues to be quite mixed, it’s a natural expectation for profit-taking.” Russian Slowdown OAO Sberbank, Russia’s biggest lender, dropped 7.4 percent and VTB Group, the second-largest, retreated 6.8 percent. Russia’s economy will contract this year after oil prices slumped and the financial crisis increased unemployment. In November, the World Bank forecast growth of 3 percent based on oil prices of $75 a barrel and expectations for a global economic expansion. Crude oil fell for a second day in New York, with May futures losing 3.6 percent to $50.49 a barrel. OAO Lukoil, Russia’s second-biggest oil producer, slid 5.4 percent. Benchmark indexes fell in all 16 emerging markets tracked by the MSCI that were open for trading except Hungary’s BUX index, which rose 0.4 percent. Hungary’s ruling Socialists nominated Economy Minister Gordon Bajnai to replace outgoing Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany in a bid to avert early elections amid the worst recession in 16 years. Bajnai said “painful” policies must be implemented. Bond Yields Rise The Czech Republic’s PX Index lost 3.8 percent as Erste Bank AG retreated on a lower share-price forecast from Goldman Sachs Group Inc. South Korea’s Kospi Index declined 3.2 percent after Samji Electronics Co. reported its first loss in six years. The extra yield investors demand to own developing nations’ bonds instead of U.S. Treasuries rose 8 basis points to 6.32 percentage points, the widest spread in a week, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s EMBI+ Index.

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