market over the past three or four months. But the recent share price
gyrations pale into insignificance when compared with the biggest
stock market falls of all time.
10) Wall Street 1901-03 -46%
The market was spooked by the assassination of President McKinley in
1901, coupled with a severe drought later the same year.
9) Wall Street 1919-21 -46%
There were fears that the new automobile sector was becoming
overheated and that car ownership had reached saturation point.
8) Wall Street 1906-07 -48%
Markets took fright after President Theodore Roosevelt had threatened
to rein in the monopolies that flourished in various industrial
sectors, notably railways.
7) Wall Street 1937-38 -49%
This share price fall was triggerd by an economic recession and doubts
about the effectiveness of Franklin D Roosevelt's New Deal policy.
6) London 2000-2003 -52%
The UK took sixth place in the table with a 52 per cent market fall
between 2000 and 2003 as investors suffered the consequences of the
collapse of the technology bubble
5) Hong Kong 1997-98 -64%
The Hong Kong stock market's heavy fall in 1997-1998 came as investors
deserted emerging Asian shares, including a very overheated Hong Kong
stock market
4) London 1973-74 -73%
Next came the UK stock market's 73 per cent drop in 1973 and 1974. set
against the backdrop of a dramatic rise in oil prices, the miners'
strike and the downfall of the Heath government.
3) Japan 1990-2003 -79%
In third place, with a 79 per cent decline, was the Japanese stock
market, which suffered a protracted slide in price from 1990 to 2003
as a share and property price bubble burst and turned into a
deflationary nightmare.
2) US Nasdaq 2000-2002 -82%
The second biggest collapse came from the technology-rich US Nasdaq
index, which fell by 82 per cent following the bursting of the dot.com
bubble in 2000
1) Wall Street 1929-32 -89%
The Wall Street Crash heads the list, with the US stock market falling
by 89 per cent between 1929 and 1932. The bursting of the speculative
bubble led to further selling as people who had borrowed money to buy
shares had to cash them in in a hurry when their loans were called in.
David Shwartz, the stock market historian, says: "The very big stock
market crashes are invariably triggered by a series of different
events which unfold one after the other. For example the biggest UK
stock market slump in 1973-74 was started by the fear of stagflation,
but was then fuelled by the dramatic rise in oil prices of late 1973,
followed by the Miners' strike and the downfall of the Heath
government."One heavy blow is not enough to produce a market crash. It
requires several different blows to bring a market to its knees."
(This list only includes stock market crashes in industrialised
economies.)
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