The impact of the global coronavirus pandemic has once more hit the world’s financial markets hard. At the close of trading on Friday 13th, the FTSE100 in the UK was down a staggering 10.9%.
This represented the worst day’s trading on the index since the infamous ‘Black Monday’ of 1987. This massive fall has seen around £160 billion lost in share prices and will have any traders nervously wondering where it will head next.
FTSE100 Key Barometer For UK
As all active traders know, this is the premier UK financial index and contains the 100 biggest companies operating in the country.
As such, it is seen as a key measure of the UK economy and also contains some of the most popular businesses to trade shares in. News such as this is therefore likely to hit many traders who were not expecting such a dramatic fall.
For traders now, it seems the only option is to wait for the market to recover and look out for any opportunities to profit as it does.
How Did It Happen?
This is the second biggest crash in FTSE100 history which gives an idea of how significant it is.
We have already noted that the panic around the coronavirus and its impact on world trade was the main driver behind it.
As the companies in the FTSE100 trade overseas and/or source parts from abroad too, the coronavirus outbreak has hit them hard which is now being reflected in share prices.
The major spark for this latest drop was the World Health Organisation officially listing the disease as a pandemic.