howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
from the independent.
Tens of billions of pounds were wiped off the value of shares on both sides of the Atlantic amid renewed fears about the world economy and the solvency of big European banks.
The FTSE 100 Index slumped 3.05 per cent to its lowest point in a year and falls elsewhere were even bigger. The Dow Jones Index in the US ended 4.62 per cent down, while France's Cac 40 plunged by 5.45 per cent and Germany's Dax by 5.13 per cent.
Shares in London alone had £41bn wiped from their value, taking the total loss to investors and pension funds in the recent losing run to £226bn, and more than $3trn globally. The FTSE 100 ended the day almost 158 down leaving it at 5,007 points. The Dow fell almost 520 points.
The losses eradicated all of Tuesday's gains and left the markets reeling as they veered towards what analysts regard as classic "bear" territory - a decline of about a fifth since they peaked earlier this year.
Panic selling of shares in Italy's largest bank, Unicredit, even had to be suspended because of the scale of the sell-off. When dealing resumed the shares were 10 per cent lower than their opening price.
And in France mistaken rumours that Société Générale, the country's second-biggest bank, was a distressed seller of gold caused it to lose 20 per cent of its value. The fall was stemmed only when the bank put out an official denial: "SocGen categorically denies all the market rumours." It ended up 14 per cent down on the start of the day.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
Things are indeed somewhat volatile at the moment the FTSE100 as I type this is 1.87% up this morning but has now been pausing, up and down in a narrow range, for the last couple of hours, I suspect waiting to see how the Dow opens at 2.30pm our time.
The media do not help with their excitable headlines. This is a time for people to be calm and let the problems pass, the markets will recover, time is what is important. We have seen this kind of volatility before and will do so again, I am certain.
Keith Sansum1
- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
BARRYW
It's gone on a fair amount of time now
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
Not unusual Keith, remember I don't only watch it every day but almost hourly.
Keith Sansum1- Location: london
- Registered: 25 Aug 2010
- Posts: 23,942
BARRYW;
You may be interested to know a number of forumites also have as much interest in the outcomes, and also view hourly/daily
some with as much expertese
ALL POSTS ARE MY OWN PERSONAL VIEWS
howard mcsweeney1- Location: Dover
- Registered: 12 Mar 2008
- Posts: 62,352
i know sweet fanny adams about the stock market but i am told by people who do that the "bottle jobs" spread panic until the prices are at rock bottom while the cool heads sit back then buy up knowing that they cannot go any lower.
Guest 655- Registered: 13 Mar 2008
- Posts: 10,247
Knowing when the market is at the bottom is impossible Howard but, you are correct in principal and while you may not be able to get right in at the bottom by managing to buy low you can make a lot of dosh. Conversely those who sell when the market fall end up the big losers.
It is encouraging that despite the equity volatility the markets are seeing the UK as very much a safe haven due to the Osborne plan. The latest gilt auction was nearly twice over-subscribed and rate being paid on 10 year gilts are at a near record low. The big risk now for Osborne is inflation and for that reason an increase in rates cannot be too far off.
Ross Miller
- Location: London Road, Dover
- Registered: 17 Sep 2008
- Posts: 3,707
Holiday time is always traditionally fairly volatile as volumes are generally low so it doesnt take particularly large transactions to move the market; couple that with the rumour mill working overtime and being stupidly if faithfully repeated by the media then one is going to see the sort of pattern we have seen this week.
For most of us with pensions or long term investments/savings you need to watch the rolling average value of your portfolio over a decent period - 5 years plus at least rather than hour by hour stock fluctuations. It is still true that over the long term the stock market is fairly consistently showing a return of somewhere around 10%.
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