Looking for a glimmer of light in the pitch dark M&A scene? It hardly raises to the level of a silver lining, but activity in middle-market mergers and acquisitions, or deals valued up to $500 million, showed greater resilience than the overall M&A market, dropping only 22.2 percent in 2008, short of the 29.6 percent drop in deals overall.

Mid-market M&A totaled $716.5 billion last year, according to data from Thomson Reuters.

M&A markets big and small were hurt by the U.S. recession, weak global financial markets and the lack of available credit to fund deals.

In the U.S., middle-market transactions totaled $178.1 billion, a 28.4 percent decline from the previous year. The U.S. saw the steepest drop of any major geographical region, while Asia-Pacific suffered only a 6.5 percent drop. European mid-market deals hit their lowest level since 2005 as deals totalled $215.9 billion, down 28 percent.

Nearly all sectors showed declines in mid-market deals, Thomson Reuters data showed. Retail and real estate fared the worst, with declines of 51.5 percent and 48.2 percent, respectively.

Credit Suisse was the top adviser for mid-market deals up to $500 million, followed by JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs. In the overall M&A market, the top advisers were Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan and Citigroup.