A final posting for 2008 ... and I thought it would be interesting to look at the major market indexes.
Now you may find this depressing, but it's not.
Let me show you what I mean:
- America’s Dow Jones industrial average dropped by over a third (33.84% to be exact), the biggest fall since 1931, whilst the S&P 500 is expected to be about 40% down;
- China’s Shanghai index is down 65%, the biggest drop in its history;
- France's CAC-40 is down 42%;
- Germany’s Dax-30 is down 40%, the second-worst performance in its history;
- Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index dropped 48%, also the second-worst market movement in its history;
- India's Mumbai index has been sliced in half, and is down by almost 52% on the year;
- Japan’s Nikkei is down 42%, a record fall since it opened in 1950;
- Singapore is halved (49.2% down);
- Sydney's stocks lost over 41% of their value; and
- UK's FTSE100 has lost more than 30% (31.3%), the worst year on record.
And that follows a rally, with the FTSE up 20% over its lowest point in October!
I think we can safely say that 2008 was a pretty bad year for financiers. For example, the worst performing shares in the FTSE100 were HBOS and Royal Bank of Scotland. The best? British Energy.
So let us have a bit more of that in 2009.
No, not more losses.
Let's have a bit more energy as things can only get better.
Happy New Year.
Comments