Relieved investors lift stocks worldwide

October 14, 2008

14 October 2008

Relieved investors lift stocks worldwide

This article is excerpted from the 14 October 2008 edition of “globeandmail.com”.

Global investors jumped into equities for the second day in a row on Tuesday, dumping relatively safer assets as they took comfort from concerted efforts by governments to shore up the financial system.

Much of the trading was unwinding panic moves from last week, when fears about the worst financial crisis in nearly 80 years swept across the world.

European shares followed Asia higher, rising nearly 5 per cent. Japan's Nikkei, which was not traded on Monday because of a holiday, gained more than 14 per cent.

MSCI's main world stock index was up more than 3.4 per cent, gaining more than 12 per cent for the week to date after plunging 20 per cent last week.

Until this week's rally, the index had lost 47 per cent of its value from an all-time high roughly a year ago.

Its emerging market stock counterpart was up 5.1 per cent on the day, adding to Monday's 7.4 per cent gain.

Investments seen recently as relatively safe compared with stocks – the Japanese yen and government bonds – fell….

Japan also joined the global push, saying it could inject public funds into regional banks to make sure small firms can get cash.

The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index was up 4.9 per cent points after its strongest one-day percentage rise on record – 10.1 per cent – on Monday….

Earlier, Japan's benchmark Nikkei surged 14.2 per cent or 1,171.14 points to 9,447.57. The broader Topix gained 13.7 per cent to 956.30.

Some analysts warned, however, that once the relief about the financial system had played through, the declining state of the world economy remained….


Topic(s): 
Canadian Economy & Politics
Information Source: 
Canadian News Channel
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