The FTSE 100 plunged ten per cent shortly after opening after the US stock market hit a new five-year low yesterday.
Commodities continued to rally on the index, while financial stocks slipped back into the red as investors lost confidence in the face of a global economic slowdown.
The Dow lost 679 points, or 7.3 per cent yesterday, closing at its lowest point since May 21st, 2003.
Asian markets followed, with Japan’s Nikkei falling 9.6 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index down eight per cent in afternoon trading.
HBOS, which in the last few sessions has seen its stock soar, today led the fall on the FTSE 100 with a 25.08 per cent drop by 08:14 BST.
Barclays shares also plunged and were down 23.47 per cent, while Royal Bank of Scotland fell 19.79 per cent to 77p.
Mining stocks are still dominating the risers, with Antofagasta up 10.12 per cent and Xstrata up 7.94 per cent.
28 Comments
10th of October 2008 - One for the history books. Things are going to be very different from now on in and 2009 is going to be another Annus Horibilis.
This is a truly Global crisis andone that couldbe potentially catastrophic, its well beyond the UK shores! its going to take a super hero to sort!!!!!!!
Lets hope you’re right merc and 10th Oct does indeed go down in history. I for one fear that 10th will soon pale into insignificance by what follows it.
Quite frankly I am getting bored of all this financial bother in the media. Its only the greedy that are effected. Those that live within their means are ok.
I am afraid some people are just going to have to learn to cut their cloth accordingly.
Lucy W
Do you really think this ‘financial bother’ wont affect you?
THANK YOU LUCY.
GREED.
WHY JUST BECAUSE THEY HAVE IT, WE MUST TO, THAT THE WAY ITS BEEN FOR SO LONG AND NOW IT WILL HAVE TO STOP..
BEER OR FOOD.
2 CARS OR BIKE.
MONEY IS HARD TO MAKE BUT EASY THE SPEND.
GREED. WAKE UP PEOPLE.
if the bbc gave a holiday to all their economic editors, for 2 weeks, we might get out of this mess, journalists are feeding on each others blogs and stock markets are open 24 hours around the world and all trying to out do each other in reducing share prices. brokers will soon see the bargains out there and confidence will return. there is no longer any excuse for banks not to lend money to each other and to house buyers. just send the new hms shropshire up to iceland to watch the cod and our money
Interesting concept - the stock exchange ?
With almost every other commodity - reducing the price would be called a “sale”, and we’d all rush to buy!
As the price goes lower - then the urge to buy increases, and so there are competing forces at work.
In the end analysis, the overall share price index could reach zero, in which case any one of us could theoretically buy all of the worlds’ stock.
Clearly this cannot happen, and the question is … “if the share price index falls - where has the value gone?” ……. it’s a bit like physics and energy - that is: energy cannot either be created nor destroyed.
And so - is it not the same with share values? … that is, no matter what the share price of a particular stock/company is - there is still a physical “presence” of that company there… that is … there are still buildings, stock, customers, intellectual property, etc etc, and so …. is the share price at any particlualr time that relevant?
Surely the share price is only one “persons” view at any time??
And so … is it that the whole idea of the stock market is totally misleading, and irrelevant as to the real value of anything?
I think the one thing that has become abundantly clear is that the old Thatcherite mantra that ‘The market will provide’ is now in complete disrepute. Perhaps ‘The market will provide for the rich at the expense of the poor’ would be more accurate - but then wasn’t that always the Tories aim?
The irresponsible ‘Yuppie’ culture of the 1980s, much favoured by the Tories has been allowed to continue by New Labour, and the result is that once again, the ordinary working people will be the ones to suffer.
Thanks to the ‘Thatcher Revolution’ and its undermining of hard-won trade union rights workers now have little or no strength to fight their grasping employers.
I suggest we need to make sure we control these thieving bankers - perhaps today’s announcement of a part-nationalisation of several banks is a step in the right direction - we must ensure capitalism is never allowed to show its unacceptable face like this again.
who cares, only the rich have shares, im more concerned about basic food prices
JD, only the rich don’t have shares. I pay into my company’s share save schemes and have a lot of my savings in shares. I am not rich but am being sensible and trying to save some money as this is taken out of my salary before it goes into the bank. The value of these shares has now dropped a great deal.
Do not make assumptions that everyone with shares is rich, I work hard to put food on the table and I too am struggling to make ends meet.
god save the queen, labour have ruined us, only dave cameron can rescue us from this mess we are all doomed unless we vote blue
Well isn’t fresh air still free or have they taxed that? So what if I can’t afford a plasma TV.
I don’t work very hard at all but still have food on the table because I grow my own - pretty simple really.
Tory boy - I think we are in the current situation because of the ‘blue’ policies we’ve followed since the 1980s, whether under the guise of Tory or ‘New’ Labour governments.
We should be jailing some of these bankers - if I’d lent you money on the understanding you would keep it safe, and you’d blown the lot at a casino, then refused to refund me, you’d be guilty of theft.
Why don’t the same rules apply to Mr Cameron’s old Etonian mates in the City of London?
We need to cut taxes and slash public spending on wasteful rubbish like refuse collections, nurses and schools, we need to put more money back into the hands of the wealth creators, the entreprenuers, bankers and traders who make this country great britain, subsidies to the poor just dont deliver the same bank for your buck and giving the money to the rich who will invest it, and recycle it around the economy, allowing some to trickle down for all, its basic economics, come on get a grib on it, we need big tax cuts for big business now to help get britain working again, remember its all labours fault this, they cared too much, you need to be more ruthless with the economy, sod the poor, lets pump some money into the wealth creating sections of society for a change
JD - Anyone who has contributed to a company pension scheme (or to an individual one for that matter) has some of that money tied up in shares. We should all be worried…
Agree with Lucy - all you need to live is food (grow your own), water (plenty around in taps).
Cut out luxuries, TV, alcohol etc etc etc and you will be fine.
A load of worry about nothing.
Y Mab: No need to cut out alcohol, brew your own. Have just started 1 gallon of Blackberry wine and 2 gallons of rhubarb wine. Starting the scrumpy next week. You see it is possible to pickle your liver on a budget.
Peter: Re share related “investments”. Everyone knows (or should know) they up as well as down. People are greedy though and think they can have easy money by such investments. Greed is the cause of all the financial problems.
I liken myself to Shakespear who said “Neither a lender or borrower be.”
Im glad Lucy and Y Mab are so unconcerned.
Will they be offering to pay the heating bills of pensioners who cant afford it this winter through no fault of their own?
Or is it just an “I’m alright Jack” attitude?
The fact the Government is having to spend so much bailing out the banks will impact on us all. Taxes will go up, services and allowances will be cut.
Whilst I too am fortunate in having income far in excess of required expenditure, I worry for those who are not so fortunate.
David Your comment “Whilst I too am fortunate in having income far in excess of required expenditure, I worry for those who are not so fortunate”
If you are that worried why don’t you donate your income far in excess of required expenditure to those not so fortunate.
David: I will gladly help deserving pensioners, but do they not have family or friends to help them?
If not and deserving, I will gladly cut wood up for them to burn while they knit some woolly hats for themselves.
Any pensioners wanting my help, please post a comment explaining why your family and friends wont help you and why you cant help yourself - that should sort the wheat from the chaff!
Y Mab - I donate both money and time in the charity work I do. My comment was on your ‘attitude’ if you care to read what I wrote. I note you have carefully avoided answering by twisting what I said once again.
To put it very very simply - Your attitude stinks when you say “a load of worry about nothing”, when to many people the problems are very real. Answer that if you can !
Lucy W
I know from first hand experience there are many deserving pensioners out there. They do not have to sit knitting woolly hats to be deserving of our support, and in my experience the most needy would never ask for it, making it even more difficult for us to help them. Your comments really do you no credit at all. You should be ashamed.
David: Sorry but if they prefer to be cold than hurt their pride, then they can’t be that bad off.
My “dwelling” often reaches freezing point by the morning in the winter, but I wear thermal underwear, fleece and wooly hat until the fire had warmed up.
I remember Edwina Curry telling old people to wrap up and wear wolly hats - good old fashioned sound advice.
God helps those who help themselves.
I personally prefer ‘Do as you would be done by’, and will continue to donate time to those less fortunate than ourselves thank you.
For you to say “if they prefer to be cold than hurt their pride, then they can’t be that bad off.” only shows your ignorance. There are people in real poverty and very badly off in our community who do and would not ask for help. Thankfully not all of us are so selfish as to ignore their plight.
I’m sorry David, but they get free bus passes and moan about how they cant afford to put the heat on in the day. Well catch the bus and potter around the shopping malls. They are baking hot in winter.
When you’re old and infirm with no family to care for you, when its cold and damp, and the pavements are slippery and treacherous, when you’ve spent the few pounds you had from your pension on food and heating bills, put your coat on and go walk to a bus stop so you can hobble around a shopping mall to warm up for a few hours. So says Lucy W. And I say again - Do as you would be done by, Lucy !
David: I can only reiterate my willingness to help, but cant help if they dont ask. It is a pride vs hardship dilema they face, according to you.
If wanted help and someone offered, I would ask.
You will find alot of old people of today come from a tougher generation, experiencing European destruction and the aftermath and find the difficulties of modern life so hardship at all.
The problem is with the younger generation of softies who imagine being a bit cold and having to put a second duvet on your bed is deprivation. I think having our house blow up and rationing, and the loss of loved ones is what the pensioners of today feel is deprivation.