Described as ‘Black Monday’, China’s Shanghai composite, the countries benchmark index, fell by 18.5 per cent after the People’s Bank of China decided to devalue the renminbi on August 11th.
However, today has seen China’s worst daily sell-off since 2007, as the renminbi fell by 8.5 per cent.
The situation in the Chinese markets has left investors bracing themselves for further losses, causing a chaotic selling of shares over the past week. With China having a large influence on other global markets, the sell-off has caused other european markets to suffer.
Along with Germany’s DAX falling below 10,000 points or the first time this year, Russia’s rouble also fell to an all time low against the dollar.
FTSE also fell by 2.5 per cent, down by more than 15 per cent since a yearly high.
The collapsing global markets has seen more than $5trillion being wiped off since the China’s devaluation.
Today also saw €230bn wiped off the pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 this morning amid worries that the world economy is losing momentum.
Stock markets in London, Paris and Frankfurt have also fallen sharply with fears of a Chinese economic slowdown.
Despite China’s best efforts to reassure investors, the sell-off continued, prompting China’s official state news agency to declare a ‘Black Monday.’ China tried and failed to comfort traders by allowing its main state pension fund to invest in the stock market.