Markets stung after another nightmare day

Markets faced yet another nightmare day yesterday, with London’s top index losing more than 4% of its value at one point.

The FTSE 100 closed the day down 246.07 points to 6796.4, a 3.5% drop.

In a nightmare week for traders, £152 billion has been wiped off the index in four days amid fears around Covid-19.

It was a feat replicated across the continent as France’s Cac lose 3.3% of its value while the Frankfurt-based Dax index dropped by 3.2%.

In the US the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1.7% just after markets had closed in Europe. Sterling lost 0.2% of its value against the dollar, with a pound now buying $1.2873. It dropped more against the euro, by 1.02% to 1.1732.

In company news, only a few shares managed to stay in positive territory. Prime among these was Hikma Pharmaceuticals, whose shares gained 4.6%, or 84.5p to 1,910p after it signed a deal to bring one of its nasal sprays to the US and showed soaring profits as the business said it was not being hit by the coronavirus outbreak.

At the other end of the spectrum WPP shares plummeted 16%, or 146.8p, to 761.6p after the advertising giant said its most-watched measure of revenue, which removes pass-through costs, fell 0.3% to £10.8 billion in 2019.

The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were Hikma Pharmaceuticals, up 84.5p to 1,910p; and Rentokil Initial, up 8.4p to 504p. Among the biggest fallers were WPP, down 146.8p to 761.6p; TUI, down 58.2p to 655.80p; and easyJet, down 92.5p to 1,110p.