Market sentiment had weakened before US downgrade: S&P

Global stock market sentiment had weakened before Standard & Poor's cut the US credit rating to AA+ from AAA, the rating agency's global head of sovereign ratings David Beers said on Friday.

"From our perspective, it's an oversimplification to say this was happening because of S&P's downgrade," Beers said, referring to views that their downgrade caused volatility in the market

S&P earlier this month cut the US rating and said the outlook remained negative, sparking a rout in global stock markets.

The rating agency also said that outlook for Asian sovereigns was stable, but was showing some downside risks.

Most Asian countries, especially those with a higher share of exports to the US, Europe, like Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, will be hurt if the US, Europe economies slowed down, said Elena Okorotchenko, managing director at S&P.