Stock Markets Around the World Reflect Wall St. Dive : Prices Plunge in Selloff on Foreign Exchanges
Shock waves from American financial centers reverberated around the world Friday, with heavy stock selling reported in Tokyo, London, Paris and Toronto.
In New York, the New York Stock Exchange followed its historic plunge with another major selloff in record trading Friday, thus ending Wall Street’s worst and busiest week ever.
The Dow Jones industrial average, having plunged a record 86.61 points Thursday, tumbled another 34.17 to 1,758.72.
The first foreign reaction to Thursday’s historic drop on Wall Street occurred in Japan, where prices of shares traded on the Tokyo Stock Exchange plunged by the largest amount ever.
The 225-share Nikkei stock average fell 460.73 points to 18,100.72, or 2.5%, in Friday’s session, trading as much as 575 points lower in the first hour of business.
Later, at the London Stock Exchange, frenzied sellers wiped billions of dollars from the paper value of shares.
At one point, the Financial Times index of 30 leading industrial companies was down 35.1 points to 1,263.1, representing a loss, at least on paper, of the equivalent of $10.5 billion.
Key London share price indicators posted unusually large double-digit drops. The Financial Times 30-share index closed at 1,270.9, down 27.3 points, or 2.1%, from Thursday.
In France, meanwhile, shares prices retreated across the board in heavy trading on the Paris Bourse.
A renewal in buying toward the end of trading in Paris slowed the decline, but a key market trend indicator closed with a loss of 2.8% after having been 3.7% lower at the opening.
Stock prices also turned lower in Toronto, coinciding with a volatile session on the New York Stock Exchange. At midday in Toronto, the composite index was down more than 16 points, and about three stocks had fallen in price for every two that had gained.
On the NYSE, losers led gainers by about four to one, and trading volume soared to 240.49 million shares, breaking the previous record of 237.57 million shares set Thursday.
Average daily NYSE volume this week was 181.84 million shares, which also broke the previous high of 176.17 million shares in the week ended last March 14.
Nationwide turnover in NYSE-listed issues, including trades in those stocks on regional exchanges and in the over-the-counter market, totaled 274.78 million shares.
Large blocks of 10,000 or more shares traded on the NYSE totaled 4,112, compared to 3,993 on Thursday.
Standard & Poor’s index of 400 industrials fell 4.80 to 255.68, and S&P;’s 500-stock composite index was down 4.51 to 230.67.
Bond Prices Mixed
In the credit markets, bond prices were mixed within a narrow range as the market moderated its steep losses of the previous day amid nervousness over continued declines in the stock market.
The bellwether 30-year Treasury bond, down by as much as $30 per $1,000 in face value on Thursday, edged up about $2.50 per $1,000 in face value. Its yield fell to 7.70% from 7.73% late Thursday.
In the secondary market for Treasury bonds, prices of short-term governments rose about 3/16 to 1/32 point, intermediate maturities rose 1/16 and 20-year issues were off about 11/16 point, according to the investment firm of Salomon Bros.
Among tax-exempt municipal bonds, general obligations were unchanged and revenue bonds were up point. Trading was moderate.
Yields on three-month Treasury bills were down 2 basis points to 5.17%. Six-month bills fell 5 basis points to 5.37%, and one-year bills were off 4 basis points at 5.47%.
The federal funds rate, the interest on overnight loans between banks, traded at 5.875%, unchanged from late Thursday.
