Black Monday for European stock exchanges, the tumble is global
European stock markets experienced a black Monday, in some cases posting their largest decline since the September 2001 attacks, due to fears stemming from the subprime crisis and the recession in the American economy.
Frankfurt plunged 7,16%, Paris 6,83%, London 5,48%, Madrid 7,54%.
Financial stocks have suffered particularly as investors fear that they will suffer further losses as a result of their exposure to the US subprime mortgage market.
The markets also welcomed the stimulus package for the US economy presented by President George W. Bush on Friday. Their fear is that it is not enough to avoid a recession in the United States with the risk of seeing it spread to Europe and other regions.
Wall Street was closed on Monday due to a public holiday in the United States.
The Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said Monday in Paris that the crisis caused by the slowdown in US growth was "serious", believing that it could also affect emerging countries.
"The situation is a situation which is serious (...) all the countries of the world are suffering from the slowdown in growth in the United States, well all the developed countries," Strauss-Kahn told reporters at the from an interview with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
"The stock markets did not seem to appreciate the package proposed by President Bush," he said.
Among the other European markets, Amsterdam fell 6,14%, Brussels lost 5,48%, Milan 5,17%, Zurich 5,26%.
Moscow for its part lost more than 7% while the Latin American financial centers were also all in the red at midday, with in particular a loss of 6,74% of the Brazilian Stock Exchange.
In Latin America, the Sao Paulo Stock Exchange fell 6% at the opening of operations on Monday, in the wake of the Asian and European stock exchanges. The Buenos Aires Stock Exchange opened on a fall of 4,64%.
In Mexico City, the Stock Exchange unscrewed at the opening of 4,77%, some 1.273,62 points less than at closing Friday, its main index being 25.440,21 points.
The main Asian markets, already closed for the weekend when the Bush plan was announced, fell more heavily than Wall Street, where the Dow Jones had sold 0,49% on Friday and the Nasdaq 0,29%.
In Tokyo, the world's second financial center, the Nikkei index of star values plunged 3,86% on Monday, ending at its lowest level in 27 months.
In Shanghai, the composite index collapsed by 5,14%.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index fell even more sharply, losing 5,5% at the close to finish below 24.000 points.
In Sydney, the S & P / ASX 200 index ended the day down 2,90%, dropping for the eleventh day in a row.
The Seoul Stock Exchange's Kospi index ended at its lowest level in five months after falling 2,95%. In New Zealand, the NZX-50 index lost only 0,48%. Taipei (-0,91%) and Manila (-0,51%) also limited the damage.
The Singapore Stock Exchange fell 6,03%.
The trend was the same Monday in India, with a fall of 7,41% at the close, the largest decline ever recorded in a session for the Sensex index. In Jakarta, the stock market lost 4,8%.
“We are seeing a lot of panic selling,” commented Stuart Smith, advisor at Bell Potter Securities in Sydney.
Mr. Smith however judged that the current crisis constitutes a beneficial purge for the market, because "the titles of the companies less transparent and less clear on their business plans are massively sold".
Investors across Asia have reacted very badly to President Bush's plans to launch a massive plan to counter growing fears of a recession in the world's largest economy.
According to the American press, one of the flagship measures would be a tax rebate of up to $ 800 per person.
"The scope of the plan is more limited than expected and most investors are waiting to know the details of the measures," said Conita Hung, economist at Delta Asia Securities in Hong Kong.
Stuart Smith in Sydney, however, advised his clients to remain stoic and wait for the storm to end.
"This kind of thing only happens once every ten years or so, you have to hang on and hold on. But the market always ends up going up and breaking new records," he said.
(moved by ex-océano 21/01 / 2008-21: 06. This topic no longer has a place here)