World stock market crash
Published in the Geelong Advertiser, January 2008
GEELONG investors suffered one of their worst days in 20 years as nearly $100 billion was wiped off the value of Australian shares yesterday.
Fears of a United States recession created panic selling among investors and saw the market fall by 7 per cent _ our biggest one day fall since 1997. It was the 12th consecutive day the ASX finished in the red.
No sector could escape the fall as Australian markets echoed the rapid declines in European, Asian and Canadian markets.
Sun Biomedical and Helicon were the worst performers, dropping more than half their value.
The All Ordinaries index was slashed by 408.9 points, or 7.26 per cent, to 5222 points. The decline was the largest since October 29, 1987, - Black Monday - when the index fell 7.52 per cent.
The share market has lost more than 24 per cent of its value since hitting record highs in November.
Geelong Advertiser finance columnist Dale Gillham urged investors not to panic.
''What is going on now will pale into insignificance over the next few years,'' Mr Gillham, Wealth Within chief analyst, said.
''To me there is no reason to panic . . . our markets are getting more aligned with Asia than the US.''
