Some respite after another turbulent day across markets

● Footsie ends up despite fading rally ● Nervousness remains among traders

Footsie ended higher after another day of wild swings on world stock markets as governments stepped up the fight against the spread of the coronavirus and implemented measures to cushion the blow to their economies.

The FTSE 100 in London closed the day up 128.63 to 5,366.11, a 2.5 per cent rise, although it had been up as much as 8.8 per cent earlier in the afternoon

But the gains, which came the day after it had lost almost 11 per cent of its value, couldn’t stop the index suffering the third worst week in its history.

Although the FTSE 100 finished higher, the FTSE 250 – seen as more reflective of the UK economy – closed down almost 1 per cent.

Company announcements were dominated by the impact of the virus with travel firms, pub operators and leisure groups among those to see share prices fall.

Other markets across Europe also rose although underperformed the FTSE 100 with Germany’s Dax gaining 0.8 per cent, while France’s Cac notched up a 1.8 per cent rise.

All the markets had been higher earlier in the day.

David Madden, an analyst at CMC Markets, said: “Losing ground towards the end of the trading day has been common recently, and it speaks to a nervousness in the markets.”

Connor Campbell, an analyst at Spreadex, described it as a ”historically terrible week”.

“What state the markets return in on Monday is unclear,” he also warned.

“Equities could really do with Trump’s stimulus plan materialising, just to reverse some of the damage done by the President’s shock travel ban.”

The week saw some £275 billion wiped off the combined value of the UK’S biggest stock market companies with the FTSE 100 down 1,096.44 points, or 16.97 per cent, since the close last Friday, notching up a new nearly 12-year low.

More central banks, includthe ing those of China, Sweden and Norway, intervened yesterday to flood credit markets with liquidity, a day after similar interventions from the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank.

Although private investors have been hard hit by the stock market falls, Rupert Thompson, chief investment officer at wealth manager Kingswood, raised hopes of a swift recovery when they do bottom out.

“We still expect any global recession to be relatively short-lived. The combination of containment measures and monetary and fiscal stimulus are expected to lead to activity picking up again later in the year,” he said.

“None of this is to say that markets have necessarily bottomed yet. Bear markets typically last considerably longer than three weeks.

“Even so, if the recession is relatively short-lived, then equities will very likely have recovered a good part of their losses by this time next year.

“Markets typically recover swiftly once they bottom - as we saw early last year with the rebound from the sell-off in late 2018.“