The FTSE 100 index of leading stocks had its worst day of the coronavirus crisis on 23 March, not coincidentally also the day that Boris Johnson announced a nationwide lockdown from which the economy is slowly emerging.

That was four months ago, when the market registered a drop of 34% on its value at the beginning of the year. Since then some stocks have had a V-shaped recovery, as their prices fell in the crisis then rebounded. Others have traced more of an L, falling steeply initially and then failing to recover.

Some of the worst performers, as is usual, are no longer in the FTSE 100; quarterly index changes allow companies whose market capitalisation has fallen below the threshold for membership to fall out and be replaced by others. That has happened this year to Kingfisher, Tui, easyJet, Centrica and Carnival.

Meanwhile, the patterns seen on the FTSE, of tech-related stocks prospering while airline and oil firms suffer, has been repeated in markets around the world. One of the few large stock markets to have recovered its levels from the beginning of the year is the Nasdaq, which specialises in technology firms. Germany’s Dax index has also got close to its January levels.

The FTSE 100 overall, however, is still at roughly 80% of its levels from early January. Although the market is not as tightly bound to the UK domestic economy as it might be, it remains to be seen whether the Bank of England’s forecast of a V-shaped recovery for the nation will prove correct.

Sources: Google Finance, Yahoo Finance, London Stock Exchange.

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