The World's Richest People Lost $70 Billion Yesterday (BusinessWeek)

Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. chairman and chief executive officer, right, talks with Bill Gates, billionaire and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, as they tour the exhibition floor during the Berkshire Hathaway Inc. annual shareholders meeting in Omaha, Nebraska, U.S., on Saturday, May 2, 2015. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

The world's 400 richest people lost a combined $70 billion on Monday as equity markets around the globe were hammered on fears about Greece and declines in China fueled by leveraged investors exiting the market.

The loss for the billionaires amounted to an average decline of $175 million, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, Africa's richest person and the world's 59th-richest, was one of only 12 billionaires among the 400 to increase their fortunes on the day, rising $180 million to $15.3 billion. Dangote Cement rose 2.35 percent.

The collective decline for the billionaires amounted to a fall of more than 1.5 percent.  The combined loss is more than the market capitalization of Ford Motor Co. or Twenty-First Century Fox Inc. The S&P fell 2.1 percent on the day and the NASDAQ dropped 2.4 percent. In Europe, the Euro Stoxx index lost 4.2 percent. China's Shenzhen Stock Exchange Composite index lost more than 6 percent of its value. 

Among the world's richest people, Spain's Amancio Ortega had the biggest fall, losing $2.2 billion on the day, a 3.2 percent decline. Ortega is Europe's richest person and the world's second-richest individual with $69.2 billion. U.S. investor Warren Buffett is the world's third-richest person with $67.1 billion and he lost $1.6 billion. Bill Gates, the richest person on the planet, lost $1.4 billion, a 1.7 percent decline. The world's 400 richest people control a combined $4.2 trillion, almost $400 billion more than the GDP of Germany.

Research for the post is derived from Bloomberg Billionaires Index data. The index tracks the daily moves of the world's 400 largest fortunes on the Bloomberg terminal and the world's 200 largest fortunes on the web. Follow the index on Twitter @bbgbillionaires.