Today's loss brings down FTSE to its early December 2008 level
Today, FTSE 100 closed 4.97% down from the previous day's closing to 4180.64, its 17th worst ever daily performance in percentage terms.
Today, most of the Asian markets closed up from yesterday's closing, with the exception of few, for example Indonesia's Jakarta Composite (down 0.93%). Even though Hang Seng closed up 0.24%, in the last half-an-hour of trading time, it lost 2.30 percentage point, losing almost all of its gain during the day. Similar stories are told for the Asian stock markets which were open after GMT 7:00 A.M.
The recent economic and financial stories have been very gloomy and indeed. Yesterday, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) announced that UK trade-deficit has hit a record level of £8.33bn in December, while The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) and The British Retail Consortium (BRC) gave a "frightening" picture for UK Retailers. Barclays announced job-loss of 2100 as well. Today's news were not much better, Jaguar Land Rover announced it is cutting 450 jobs, while Zavvi closed down further 18 stores reducing its workforce by 353 addition to its decision to close 22 stores and to cut 178 jobs on last Thursday.
"17th worst day performance ever" may sound not so scary. But if you look at the list: the second one is the Black Monday (October 19th, 1987), and 1st, 6th and 9th places are taken by dates within a week after Black Monday. Six further dates are in October 2008, one each in late September 2008, November 2008 and December 2008. There is also September 11, 2001. It seems October is the worst month of the year for stock markets, with 10 out of 16 worst performance in October (while all, but one, are in the second-half of the year and all, but two, are in the last-quarter of the year).
It was not just the average of the components did badly today. If one looks at FTSE 100 components, then 4 out 102 shares are all down, that's pretty awful performance by anyone's standard. FTSE 250 did much better than FTSE 100, even though it was still down 2.81%. Indeed, today's most of the winners in London Stock Exchange come from FTSE 250 Composite and not FTSE 100.
Banking sector was hurt badly, with all shares down by 2 figures, except HSBC shares, which managed to climb up by 18p (2.81%) in the last 20 minutes of the trading day (it literally climbed up 8pence in the last minute). Barclays had another heavy loss today, 14.35%. Yesterday it lost 10.13%. Its share was doing remarkably well prior to its announcement of 2100 job-loss yesterday, having at least 8 consecutive trading-days rise. However all these gains have been lost and is even lower than the level before all these wonderful continuous gains.
Today was the last trading-day for shares of HBOS, which is being merged to Lloyds TSB on this Friday. Unfortunately it was not the best day of HBOS shares, standing at mere 6% of its value of January 2007 and only one tenth of its February 2008 level. It will be exchanged for 0.605 Lloyds TSB shares at the closing of tomorrow's business today. Once, its shares had been offered for 0.83 Lloyds TSB shares, however further problems with HBOS forced the exchange-offer to be revised down.
Today's big loss brings down the FTSE level to its early December 2008 level. Since December 5th, 2008 it has been rising slowly but steadily till Wednesday last week. The loss from the last week wipes out all the gains which has been made over a month-period. American markets opened around 3% down today.
The fall is likely to continue further, with the possibility of bringing down FTSE 100 under 4000 once again, the level which was seen on November 24th, 2008 last time.
(see UPDATEs for future movements)
Date | Close | Day Change | Percentage Day Change | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| October 20 1987 | 1801.60 | -250.7 | -12.22% | ||||
| October 19 1987 | 2052.30 | -249.6 | -10.84% | ||||
| October 10 2008 | 3932.10 | -381.7 | -8.85% | ||||
| October 6 2008 | 4589.20 | -391.1 | -7.85% | ||||
| October 15 2008 | 4079.50 | -314.7 | -7.16% | ||||
| October 26 1987 | 1684.10 | -111.1 | -6.19% | ||||
| September 11 2001 | 4745.98 | -287.7 | -5.72% | ||||
| November 6 2008 | 4272.41 | -258 | -5.70% | ||||
| October 22 1987 | 1833.20 | -110.6 | -5.69% | ||||
| January 21 2008 | 5578.20 | -323.5 | -5.48% | ||||
| July 15 2002 | 3994.50 | -229.61 | -5.44% | ||||
| October 16 2008 | 3861.40 | -218.2 | -5.35% | ||||
| September 29 2008 | 4818.77 | -269.7 | -5.30% | ||||
| December 1 2008 | 4065.49 | -222.52 | -5.19% | ||||
| October 8 2008 | 4366.69 | -238.52 | -5.18% | ||||
| October 24 2008 January 14 2009 | 3883.36 4180.64 | -204.47 -218.51 | -5.00% -4.97% | ||||
UPDATE (on 15th January 2009):
Today, FTSE 100 closed 1.42% down, at one point it was down 2.14% touching today's lowest level: 4090.87.
UPDATE (on 19th January 2009):
After a rise of 0.63% on Friday, it saw 0.93% drop today, regardless of rising by more than 2.5% in the early morning. At one point, it reach 4032.40, getting closer to the benchmark of 4000.
UPDATE (on 23rd January 2009):
Today, FTSE is gone below the benchmark of 4000 after its continuous fall since January 7th, (with only 0.63% rise on January 16th). On Wednesday it came very close to reaching 4000, hitting 4001.40.
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