BLACK THURSDAY; pounds 52bn off shares as jobs are axed.Byline: CLINTON MANNING Business Editor MORE than pounds 52billion was wiped off share prices yesterday in the biggest one day slump for nine years. The FTSE-100 Index plunged 226 points, four per cent, to 5,314.8 - a fall not seen since 1992 when Tory Chancellor Norman Lamont Norman Stewart Hughson Lamont, Baron Lamont of Lerwick, PC (born 8 May 1942) is a former Conservative Party MP for Kingston-upon-Thames, England. He is best-known for his period serving as Chancellor of the Exchequer, from 1990 until 1993, and was created a life peer in 1998. pulled Britain out of the European exchange rate mechanism European exchange rate mechanism (ERM) The system that countries in the European Union once used to pay exchange rates within bands around an ERM central value. . Drops on Wall Street and Japan's Nikkei Index plus major jobs cuts by two big firms added to Black Thursday's gloom. The shares plunge is grim news for savers. Anyone who put pounds 1,000 into an FTSE-linked ISA (1) (Instruction Set Architecture) See instruction set. (2) (Interactive Services Association) See Internet Alliance. (3) (Internet Security and Acceleration) See .NET. in December 1999 - the stock market's peak - will have lost 23 per cent. That's pounds 233 out of pocket. The collapse was triggered by news that US giant Procter & Gamble is to axe 9,000 posts. It employs 6,000 staff in the UK. And one of Britain's biggest engineering group Invensys announced it was shedding 2,000 more workers on top of the 3,000 it said would go last November. CBI CBI abbr. cumulative book index CBI Confederation of British Industry CBI n abbr (= Confederation of British Industry) → C.E.O.E. chief economist The Chief Economist is a single position job class having primary responsibility for the development, coordination, and production of economic and financial analysis. It is distinguished from the other economist positions by the broader scope of responsibility encompassing the Kate Barker said: "The US slowdown may have a more serious impact on us than first predicted." A City insider added: "Investor confidence is collapsing." Manufacturers suffered another slump in orders during February with business at its weakest since July 1999. Economists now predict a further cut in interest rates, meaning cheaper mortgages. CAPTION(S): GLOOM: FTS FTS facteur thymique sérique. =E 100 takes a dive |
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