Shares in London’s biggest companies were dragged lower today after banks slashed their dividends and the US warned hundreds of thousands of Americans might die in the pandemic.
The FTSE 100 dropped as much as 4.5 per cent or 257 points to 5,414 in early trading, before settling about 3.5 per cent or 200 points down at 5,471 by mid-morning.
It broke a two-day winning streak for the index, which has managed to regain some ground since dropping below 5,000 points last month.
In the eurozone, Frankfurt’s DAX slid 3 per cent to 9,637 points and the Paris CAC 40 shed 3.1 per cent to 4,262.
Neil Wilson, chief market analyst at Markets.com, said: ‘A bit of a gloomy start to April, like a sharp frost killing off the buds that appeared too soon.’
TODAY: The FTSE 100 index of Britain’s biggest firms fell this morning after rising yesterday
Mr Wilson added: ‘Global stocks got off to a soggy start in April as economic damage wrought by the coronavirus was laid bare and investors felt there was not yet enough to show the virus was at or near its peak in Europe or the US.
‘Donald Trump reflected the mood as he warned of weeks of pain still ahead, a stark change from his rather casual approach thus far. He also called for another two trillion dollars for infrastructure spending.’
Banks led the FTSE’s drop today after announcing they would not return money to shareholders this year, and cancelling outstanding dividends from 2019.
HSBC was down by 9.3 per cent, Standard Chartered by 7.1 per cent, Lloyds by 5.2 per cent, the Royal Bank of Scotland by 5 per cent and Barclays by 4.8 per cent.
LAST WEEK: The FTSE 100 index finished at 5,510 last Friday, rising 6 per cent overall last week
The falls today also come after figures released overnight showed factory activity falling across most of Asia in March as the outbreak paralysed supply chains.
There were sharp drops in export power-houses Japan and South Korea overshadowing a modest improvement in China .
Investors were also concerned about the number of deaths from coronavirus in Britain rising by 27 per cent in a day, to a new total of 1,789.
Robert Carnell, ING’s head of Asia-Pacific research, said most the prospect for most manufacturing sectors going into the second quarter is for ‘even more weakness’.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 400 points, or 1.9 per cent, yesterday
In the US yesterday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged more than 400 points, or 1.9 per cent, to seal the worst first-quarter finish of its 135-year history.
It follows a stocks rebound in Europe and elsewhere earlier this week that was powered by aggressive fiscal and monetary stimulus from around the world.
The FTSE had closed up nearly 2 per cent yesterday as markets reacted to oil prices steadying and Chinese factory data raising hopes of a revival in economic activity.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index ended yesterday with its worst quarter in 18 years, losing about £2.3trillion in market value.
People wearing face masks walk past a bank’s electronic board showing the Hong Kong share index at Hong Kong Stock Exchange Wednesday today
Investors are selling as lockdown measures to contain the health crisis upend business activity, raising the threat of corporate defaults and mass layoffs.
With the outbreak still far from contained globally, US President Donald Trump warned Americans of a ‘painful’ two weeks ahead.
It comes amid signs the US death toll could stretch into the hundreds of thousands even with social distancing measures.
Britain’s stock market has suffered its worst run for more than three decades as the coronavirus crisis sends shares tumbling.
That was the biggest quarterly percentage fall since the final three months of 1987 and the biggest quarterly points fall on record.
The news comes as a record-breaking 381 coronavirus deaths and 3,009 cases were declared in the UK yesterday, on what was Britain’s darkest day so far in the ever-worsening crisis
The rout has wiped £470billion off the value of Britain’s blue-chip companies – leaving savers with pensions and other investments nursing heavy losses.
Most of the losses – some 23.4 per cent – have come in little over five weeks as the spread of Covid-19 around the world accelerated.
The sell-off has been the worst since the Black Monday stock market crash of October 1987 when the FTSE 100 fell 23 per cent in two days.
Although the market has fallen significantly in recent weeks, the FTSE 100 has risen 13.6 per cent since crashing to a nine-year low below the 5,000 mark last week.