Global stock markets back in the red: FTSE 100 index drops back below 6,000 as second-wave fears unnerve investors and big UK firms reveal cost of virus
- FTSE 100 was last trading 183 points down at 5,948, a fall of 3 per cent
- First time below 6,000 since mid-May when stock recovered from Covid crash
- London stocks hit by second-wave fears and heavy losses for UK blue-chips
- French and German markets also down 3 and 4.3 per cent respectively
- US stock market hit by poor economic data with leading indices down 1-2%
Stock markets around the world saw sharp falls today as fears grew among investors that many countries are risking a second lockdown should coronavirus flare up again.
In London, the FTSE 100 index dropped back below 6,000 for the first time since mid-May when UK stocks were on an upward trajectory from the Covid crash of March. It was last trading 183 points down at 5,948, a fall of 3 per cent.
Equities were sold off across Europe, with France’s Cac-40 2.2 per cent down and Germany’s DAX falling 3.6 per cent.
Grim reading: Traders around the world hit the sell button today on second wave fears.
Downward trend: The Footsie was hit by a triple whammy of second-wave fears, heaavy losses for British blue-chips and some disappointing US economic data.
European markets had already sunk into the red this morning despite some optimism in US markets last night after the Federal Reserve promised more support for the struggling economy.
But a crushing economic update from the US authorities sent Wall Street into the red this afternoon.
Data showed the US economy shrank at a dizzying annual 33 per cent in the April-June quarter – by far the worst quarterly plunge ever – as coronavirus shut down businesses, throwing tens of millions out of work and sending unemployment surging to 14.7 per cent.
Slippinmg back: The FTSE 100 index has fallen back below the psycologically important 6,000 mark fo the first time sinbce mid-May.
That sent Wall Street traders to the ‘sell’ buttons and the Nasdaq was trading 1 per cent down by 1500 BST, S&P 500 1.5 per cent and the Dow Jones industrial average nearly 2 per cent.
Wariness about the economic implications of a second wave were exacerbated in London by a slew of disappointing results this week from leading firms.
Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell revealed a tremendous £14billion loss, due to falling oil prices and sales during the pandemic.
The FTSE 100 heavyweight also wrote down a record $16.8billion on the value of its assets as a result and its 6 per cent share price fall wieghed heavily on the blue-chip index.
Meanwhile Lloyds Banking Group reported a shock pre-tax loss of £602million in the first half of the year, warning investors that the impact of the pandemic was more ‘profound’ and ‘much larger’ than it expected.
That followed similarly grim figures from Barclays and Santander yesterday and the widely-held Lloyds shares fell a whopping 7.8 per cent to 26.15p.
Connor Campbell, financial analyst at Spreadex, comments said that things had ‘got real nasty … with the US stomping into the session with an ugly GDP reading’.
‘Thought it wasn’t exactly a surprise,’ he added, ‘and came in a smidge better than consensus forecasts, there is arguably no way to greet news of a 32.9% contraction in the second quarter – at the annualised rate – than with a cliff dive into the red.
‘That number – the worst since the 1940s – caused the Dow Jones to fall close to 500 points, leaving the index in danger of sinking under 26,000 for the first time in three weeks. Remember, that US GDP reading comes after a worse than forecast 10.1% contraction in the German economy, meaning the markets were already in a foul mood.’