Global equities plunge — The West Ranch Beacon

Equities plunged on Friday after a dramatic late sell-off in New York extended the sustained losing streak on world stock markets. London’s FTSE 100 opened 429 points or 10 per cent lower before recovering somewhat to stand 4.8 per cent weaker at 4,095.0, a loss of 217 points. The benchmark index gave up 53 points over the previous session in an afternoon surrender which wiped out an attempt at a recovery.

In Frankfurt, the Xetra Dax 30 was 9.4 per cent weaker at 4,430.9 whilst Paris’ CAC 40 fell 314 points to 3,127.8. Overall, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was 7.5 per cent lower at 852.0 reports the Financial Times.

Japanese shares fell by 11.4 per cent – the worst drop for 20 years – leading a rout of Asia-Pacific shares as fears deepened that the world’s economy was heading for recession.

The sharp falls came after New York equities suffered their seventh consecutive daily fall. session overnight. The S&P 500 closed down 7.6 per cent at 990.92. Its longest losing streak in 12 years has taken the index’s decline since the collapse of Lehman Brothers to more than a quarter. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 7.3 per cent – its biggest percentage decline since 1987 – to 8,579.19.

“Yesterday’s expiry of the short selling ban in the US certainly saw the financial stocks take a pummelling but overall it’s the fact that despite the huge fire fighting efforts of central banks worldwide we still haven’t seen any thawing of interbank lending that is going to be causing the most concern now,” said Matt Buckland at CMC Markets.