Stock Markets Close Up

Shares on stock markets across the world have traded positively for the first time this week. After days of sell-offs across the globe, most of the world’s major indexes were significantly up at the close of trade today.

The news from the US that the Federal Reserve has unpredictably cut the primary discount rate at which it lends banks money has eased fears that a liquidity shortage could result in a worldwide credit crunch, to the detriment of businesses and consumers.

Furthermore, positive news from the German economy helped inject some life into flat European markets, many of which had traded significantly in the red during the course of the morning.

At close, the FTSE 100 in London had rebounded to gain 205.30 points over the day, smashing back through the 6,000 barrier it broke just a day before to close as 6,064.2.

The DAX in Frankfurt was also well up over the course of the day, seeing the index strengthen by 108.22 points since negative trading this morning, settling at 7378.3 by the end of the day.

Meanwhile in Paris, the CAC index of 40 top company securities also saw strong growth, gaining 98.16 points to 5363.6 at the end of the day’s trade.

In the US, the leading Dow Jones index saw impressive growth, up 233.30 points on the day, whilst the smaller, niche NASDAQ market also rose by 53.96 points on yesterday’s trade.

After a week that has seen finance markets in the US bring world stock markets to their needs, and hasty but effective remedial measures, markets have finally seen some green after trading today - an encouraging sign for investors and fund managers across the world.

Whilst the credit crunch is still a possibility, the greater access to credit now open to US lenders should be able to help effectively absorb much of the liquidity issues the market is currently experiencing.

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