FTSE suffers worst quarter since 1987

BRITAIN’S stock market has suffered its worst run for more than three decades as the coronavirus crisis sends shares tumbling.

Despite steady gains yesterday, the FTSE 100 fell 24.8pc, or 1870.48 points, in the first three months of the year to end the first quarter at 5671.96.

That was the biggest quarterly percentage fall since the final three months of 1987 and the biggest quarterly points fall on record. The rout has wiped £470bn off the value of Britain’s blue-chip companies and £615bn off the wider FTSE All-Share – leaving savers with pensions and other investments nursing heavy losses.

most of the losses – some 23.4pc – 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 23pc in two days.

David Buik, a consultant to Aquis Exchange, said: ‘ The recovery process for business could take a long time and it is likely that dividends will be cut or cancelled by many companies. This will damage pension values for years.’

Although the market has fallen significantly in recent weeks, the FTSE 100 has risen 13.6pc since crashing to a nineyear low below the 5000 mark last week.

The blue-chip index was up nearly 2pc yesterday after China’s official purchasing managers’ index (PmI) of manufacturing activity – where scores below 50 show decline and above show growth – rose to 52 in march, having plunged to a record low of 35.7 in February as factories across the country were shut to stop the spread of the virus.