FTSE recovers some lost ground, but remains depressed amid global jitters

The FTSE has dropped close to 6% in just the last five days of trading, having traded at close to 7,900 on Thursday.

Shares traded up in the City on Thursday (Chris Radburn/PA) (PA Archive)

Shares in the FTSE 100 managed to regain some of their lost ground on Thursday after a yo-yo session which saw the index fluctuate as much as 130 points between its high and low point.

The bounce-back helped the index jump to 7,410 by the end of the day, a rise of 65.58 points or 0.9% after Swiss authorities agreed an emergency £45 billion loan with Credit Suisse overnight.

But it was far from enough to regain the losses from Wednesday, when the FTSE had its worst single day of trading in three years – since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic.

It means that the FTSE has dropped close to 6% in just the last five days of trading, having traded at close to 7,900 on Thursday.

European markets are on the front foot as we close out a day that has seen both the Swiss and European Central Banks step in to ease contagion concerns in the banking sector

Joshua Mahony, IG

On Thursday the European Central Bank (ECB) decided to push ahead with an interest rate rise from 3% to 3.5% despite the turmoil in markets.

Joshua Mahony, senior market analyst at online trading platform IG, said: “European markets are on the front foot as we close out a day that has seen both the Swiss and European Central Banks step in to ease contagion concerns in the banking sector.

“The 53.7 billion dollar SNB (Swiss National Bank) liquidity pledge provided to the beleaguered Credit Suisse bank helped lift sentiment into the ECB rate decision, with (president of the European Central Bank) Christine Lagarde doing her best to allay fears that others may be in trouble.

“Part of this newfound confidence comes in response to Lagarde’s insistence that the 2008 crisis has resulted in a significantly more stable and better-equipped financial services industry.

“Nonetheless, the gains seen today should continue to be taken against the backdrop of significant risk and uncertainty, with ECB vice-president Luis de Guindos recently warning that some EU banks will be adversely affected by higher interest rates.”

In Germany the Dax index closed up 1.6% while France’s Cac 40 rose 2%. On Wall Street a short while after European markets closed the S&P 500 was up 1.7% while the Dow Jones had gained 1.1%.