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The leading shares of the 100 companies listed on the LSE suffered their worst week since August last year, just as the air of the Eurozone crisis began to blow even harder, with more escalated discussions on whether Greece would dump the euro, and Spain coming back into the ‘limelight’.
As talks intensified over the past weeks, the FTSE 100 dropped by almost 70.76 points to rest at 5267.62, marking more than 5-day decline and its lowest level since nearly 11 months ago.
And over the weeks, the topping index has lost about 308 points, with almost £80bn being entirely wiped off the value of Britain’s top companies, according to the FTSE Group. This calamity was mostly brought on as a resultof the euro woes.News of Greece’s continuing political upheavals has also contributed towards adding uncertainty to the already existing doubts on the part of investors with respect to the “euro-project”.
Moreover, financial shares fell sharply lower on concerns over the UK’s exposure to Spain and the rest of the Euro zone. Lloyds Banking Group lost 1.7p to 25.95p, Royal Bank of Scotland fellby 1.07p to 19.99p, and Barclays closed 5.8p lower at 176.1p.
Elsewhere, stock index figures pointed to a lower open on Wall Street on Monday. Futures for the S&P 500 fell by 0.43 percent; Dow Jones futures also fell by roughly 0.34 percent, and Nasdaq 100 is down by 0.47 percent.
European shares also experienced a nosedive and are hovering around 1 percent. Oil and gold are also experiencing declines over worries that the global economic forecast, and its consequences on the coming corporate earnings season,may weigh adversely on investor sentiment.
The recent estimate cut that was made by the World Bank for East Asian growth, especially China, also contributed to the drowning of the positives that was witnessed after the US employment report that was brought out in September.
The prospect also looks bright for investors in the Wall Street as tensions over the coming elections are simmering. Although the actual elections is still some days away and still a close call as ever, however, investors are getting a little bit more confident about the economy and there have been some bullish run in the market, a much positive trend.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc (NYSE:WMT) and American Express (NYSE:AXP) will hold a conference call on Monday to make a financial service announcement. This announcement may have an immediate impact on market trends in the weeks to come; till the conclusion of the much awaited elections at the very least.
