World's 500 richest individuals took a massive hit to their personal fortunes, as they lost 2.1 per cent of their collective networth, or $117 billion on Monday.
In the biggest single-day drop posted by US stocks this year, the world's richest man, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos saw the steepest decline of $3.43 billion.
According to a Business Today report, as many as 21 billionaires lost $1 billion or more as investors reacted to stepped-up tensions between the US and China.
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LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault of France, who lost $3.25 billion, was second to Bezos in terms of losses, followed by Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg (-$2.80 billion).
As many as 17 Indian billionaires from the country, Azim Premji, Shiv Nadar, Uday Kotak, Gautam Adani, Radhakishan Damani, Cyrus Poonawalla and Savitri Jindal, lost over $6 billion in a single trading day. Bharti Airtel chief Sunil Mittal was the only desi name on the list to be in the green, seeing his personal fortune increased by $92.8 million.
Why did this happen?
The US announced last week that it would impose a 10 per cent tariff on Chinese imports -- worth $300 billion from September 1. It also said that it could raise duties further if China's President Xi Jinping failed to move more quickly towards a trade deal.
The loss is an abrupt reversal for the world's richest, who up until today had experienced steady gains.
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