China turmoil takes toll on global stocks in turbulent start to 2016 | Global economy
A punishing week has left global stock markets nursing losses of more than $2tn in the first week of the new year after worries about China’s faltering growth and turmoil on its stock exchanges reverberated around the world.
Almost £85bn was wiped off the FTSE 100 in its worst opening week to a year since 2000, when the dotcom bubble burst. The blue-chip index closed at 5,912.44 on Friday, down 0.7% on the day and 5.3% on the week.
Repeating the pattern of last summer, sharp drops on the world’s biggest stock exchanges mirrored plunging shares in China, where fresh signs of economic weakness and the prospect of a ban on share sales by major stakeholders being lifted had sparked a wave of selling by smaller investors.
