Downward spiral
August 19, 2011
Global stocks fell again on Friday, extending fears that major economies are heading for recession.
Germany's DAX index fell 3.4 percent to its lowest level since November 2009. Britain's FTSE 100 was down 2 percent, while France's CAC-40 dropped by 2.7 percent.
The decline followed a dramatic day for the European markets on Thursday when the FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares tumbled by 4.8 percent, its biggest one-day fall since March 2009. Thursday also saw the worst single-day losses in the DAX since November 2008 when it plummeted by 5.82 percent.
"The heavy selling is on the back of fears over the state of global economic growth and the ability of European banks to withstand another freezing-over of credit markets," said Ben Potter, strategist at IG Markets.
Meanwhile in Asia, the Tokyo exchange was down 2.5 percent, while Korea's KOSPI index slumped more than 6 percent.
German jitters
News of the latest market plunge came as an opinion poll revealed that two out of three Germans doubted whether Chancellor Angela Merkel can lead the eurozone out of the economic crisis.
Around 55 percent of respondents said they had little confidence and another 20 percent said they had no confidence whatsoever that Merkel's conservative-led government could contain the eurozone debt crisis.
According to the poll released by German ARD public television on Friday, just 22 percent of respondents said they were confident in the chancellor.
Author: Charlotte Chelsom-Pill (AFP, Reuters, dpa)
Editor: Martin Kuebler