Post by Steve Gardner on Jan 21, 2008 9:34:27 GMT
Things are looking gloomy. The FTSE has been as low as 5,748 this morning and has been rapidly fluctuating between 5,750 and 5,770 throughout morning trading. Gold, a traditional safe haven for investors unsure about the markets, is also down from $881 to $872.
You can watch the markets in almost real time (they're update once every 20 seconds or so) in the table above. The red and green arrows that appear from time-to-time represent the current rate relative to the previous rate and not relative to the day's opening prices.
Source: BBC
You can watch the markets in almost real time (they're update once every 20 seconds or so) in the table above. The red and green arrows that appear from time-to-time represent the current rate relative to the previous rate and not relative to the day's opening prices.
Source: BBC
European stock markets have suffered sharp losses amid growing fears of a recession in the US.
By 0845 GMT, London's FTSE-100 index was down more than 2%, in Paris the Cac-40 fell more than 2.5% and in Frankfurt the Dax was down almost 3%.
It was a gloomy Monday in Tokyo too, as the Nikkei fell by 3.9% to its lowest close since October 2005.
The markets have taken little comfort from measures to boost the US economy proposed by President Bush on Friday.
The state of the US economy is very important to Asia's biggest companies because American consumers are some of their top customers.
In Mumbai stocks were also hit, the Sensex index fell 987 points or 5.2%, adding to an 8% fall last week.
The Hang Seng slumped 1,383.0 points, or 5.5%, to close at 23,818.9,
Australia's benchmark ASX 200 index closed down 2.9% or 166.9 points at 5,580.4, which is its lowest level for a year.
It was also the 11th consecutive negative day for the index, which has not happened for more than 25 years.
Markets in China, India, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan and the Philippines also fell.
