EU referendum: FTSE 100 in partial recovery as billions wiped off bank shares
More than £100bn was wiped off the FTSE 100 this morning as the bluechip index suffered a near record fall following the UK's decision to leave the European Union.
The index dropped eight per cent in the first minutes of trading as stock markets looked on course for their worst day since the financial crisis. After 90 minutes of trading, some of the early selling had been reversed, with the index holding at 6,051.05 – down 4.5 per cent.
Banks and housebuilders, however, were hit for massive double-digit losses. Barclays dropped by 30 per cent to hit 131p – its worst price since 2009 – at one point, before climbing back to 150p, a 19 per cent hit.
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The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) was hit even worse, falling 34 per cent as shares hit the open market, before also recovering to a loss of "just" 18 per cent.
A taste of the turmoil unleashed on the market at 8am this morning came from Asia overnight, where trading on the Nikkei 225 was halted for 10 minutes as frantic trading knocked eight per cent of the Japanese market.
The prospect of trading being suspended on the FTSE 100 was not out of the question. If an individual share rises or falls by more than eight per cent from its opening level, circuit breakers will kick in, causing an immediate five-minute suspension to trading.
Read more: Bank of England to take "all necessary steps" in teh wake of Brexit vote
Sterling lost its biggest amount in a single spell of trading overnight, dropping from $1.50 to $1.3698.
The biggest fall the FTSE 100 has suffered in a single day came in October 2008, where it lost 9.6 per cent in one session at the height of the financial crisis.