Bear Stearns emergency loan hammers markets

Despite initial gains in the UK on the news, investors began to panic about the implications of the loan promting the FTSE to drop 60.70 to finish 5631.70 at the close of play. Banks were hard hit with Barclays and HBOS among the worst performing stocks down 30.75 and 34.00 respectively. Oil companies continued to perform well and Royal Dutch Shell was the best performer up 162.00. Meanwhile, in the US, the Dow Jones was down 156 points at 11,988 while shares in Bear Stearns fell 40%. Ifaonline