Terrible start to New Year for the Footsie

Feb 1 2008 by Graeme King, The Journal

LONDON’S blue-chip share index has suffered one of its worse beginnings to a year since it was launched 24 years ago.

The FTSE 100 Index has shed more than 577 points since the start of 2008 – a drop of 8.9% on its opening mark of 6456.9.

The fall represents the third-worst January on record for the top flight, which was founded in 1984.

The Footsie’s worst-ever January performance was at the start of 2000 at the height of the dotcom crash, when the FTSE 100 plummeted 9.6%.

Fears over the state of the US economy and the ongoing crisis in credit markets saw shares take a hammering last month.