FTSE 100 shares fall again after steep drops on Nikkei, Hang Seng and Sensex

The FTSE 100 was falling again in morning trading today, after sharp falls among Asian stocks overnight.

The drop came after US markets closed in correction territory last night, with both the Dow Jones and the S&P 500 falling more than 10 per cent since their most recent highs.

Today the FTSE 100 fell as low as 7,127 points, although it was at 7,146 points, or 0.35 per cent lower, at the time of writing. Meanwhile, the FTSE 250 was down 0.2 per cent, while the FTSE All-Share index was down 0.3 per cent.

European shares were faring slightly better, with the German Dax and the French Cac both remaining flat.

“The multitude of market comparisons to 1987 we’ve been hearing all year gets another string to its bow,” said Matt Simpson, senior market analyst at Faraday Research.

“It was a sea of red for Asian stocks early on with Chinese shares bearing the brunt. With sentiment being the key driver, markets are yet to react to news that the US government has shut down again for the 2nd time in three months.

“The knee-jerk reaction we’ve seen from equities this week has the classic ‘caught with pants down’ hallmark. And that alone is enough to explain the volatile whipsaws and aggressively rising Vix.”

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