Emerging-market stocks sank for a fourth day, sending the benchmark index to its largest weekly rout since May 2010, amid concerns about Europe’s debt crisis and slower growth in the U.S. Currencies fell versus the dollar this week. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index fell 3 percent to 1,041.07 at 4:30 p.m. in New York. The gauge entered a so-called correction yesterday, falling more than 10 percent from this year’s high. Argentina’s Merval Index deepened losses after dropping the most yesterday among 91 equity benchmarks tracked by Bloomberg. Turkey’s benchmark lost the most since May 2010 with a 5.2 percent slump and Hungary’s BUX Index fell 19 percent from an April peak. Brazil’s Bovespa index added 0.3 percent, still ending the week with a 10 percent decline, the most since November 2008. Russia’s Micex Index fell 2 percent. Borrowing costs for Italy and Spain, the euro zone’s third- and fourth-largest economies, have surged since an aid plan for Greece and other euro-region nations approved July 21 by the European Union summit failed to end contagion to more countries. U.S. payrolls rose by a better-than-forecast 117,000 workers in July, after a 46,000 increase in June that was more than originally estimated, the Labor Department reported today. The data wasn’t enough to buoy global markets. MSCI’s emerging market index is down 14 percent since the May 2 high. The drop today has extended this week’s slump to 8.5 percent. The gauge measuring stocks in developed nations has also lost 8.6 percent over the past five days. ‘Better Shape’ Templeton Asset Management’s Mark Mobius said emerging economies are in “better shape” than developed nations amid turmoil roiling global markets. “We’re looking at equities all the time and equities are looking better and better with all this turmoil,” Mobius, who oversees about $50 billion as executive chairman of Templeton’s emerging markets group, said in a Bloomberg Television interview today. “The emerging markets are in much better shape than the developed countries. If you look at the gross domestic product levels, foreign exchange reserves, emerging markets are in a very, very sweet spot.” Relative borrowing costs in dollars for emerging markets rose for the week amid concern about the global growth outlook. The extra yield investors demand to own dollar bonds from emerging-market governments over U.S. Treasuries rose 19 basis points, or 0.19 percentage point, to 320 this week, according to JPMorgan’s EMBI Global Index, the largest weekly gain since January. Yields Jump The yield on Argentina’s dollar bonds due in 2038 leaped 46 basis points to 9.38 percent, the highest since September 2010. The yield on the notes due 2020 sold by Gol Linhas Aereas Inteligentes SA, Brazil’s second biggest airline, surged 75 basis points this week, while debt from Hypermarcas SA climbed 68 basis points, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. All currencies in emerging markets weakened against the dollar this week, with the South African rand, the Turkish lira and Hungary’s forint falling more than 3 percent. Taiwan’s benchmark Taiex Index plummeted 5.6 percent, the sharpest drop since November 2008 and South Korea’s Kospi Index (KOSPI) slid 3.7 percent, the biggest slide since November 2009. Russia’s benchmark index slipped as much as 4.1 percent, its sharpest drop since July 1 last year, as oil fell the most since May this week in New York. OAO Sberbank, the country’s largest lender, declined 2.7 percent. Wildebeest “The market is behaving like a pack of wildebeest and it’s difficult to predict where they will go,” Ivan Mazalov, director of Prosperity Capital Management, which manages more than $5 billion of assets in Russia and former Soviet states, said by phone today. “It’s panic driven, but the world didn’t change overnight and we see buying opportunities.” B2W Cia. Global de Varejo, Brazil’s biggest online retailer and a subsidiary of Lojas Americanas SA, dropped 2.7 percent to 12.95 reais after posting a loss in the second quarter compared with a profit a year earlier. Embraer SA, the world’s fourth- largest planemaker, fell 2 percent to 9.75 reais, its lowest price in more than a year. Grupo Financiero Galicia SA, Argentina’s largest consumer lender, dropped 2.8 percent after sinking 6.1 percent yesterday. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng China Enterprises Index of Chinese companies’ H shares tumbled 3.9 percent. The Shanghai Composite Index of shares fell 2.2 percent, the most in almost two weeks. The Malaysian ringgit slid 1.1 percent today and 1.4 percent for the week, the worst performer among currencies across Asian emerging countries. South Korea’s won fell 0.5 percent versus the dollar. The government will strengthen monitoring of capital flows and the currency, bond and stock markets, the finance ministry said today after an emergency meeting was held to discuss global economic and financial market conditions. The Markit iTraxx SovX CEEMEA Index of eastern European, Middle East and Africa credit-default swaps climbed to 237 basis points from 225. To contact the reporters on this story: Belinda Cao in New York at Lcao4@bloomberg.net Jason Webb in London at jwebb25@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Regan at jregan19@bloomberg.net; Darren Boey at dboey@bloomberg.net

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