Recent market volatility

Over the past month or so we have seen an increase in the levels of volatility in world markets. Initially this was caused by a sharp sell-off in the mainland Chinese market. Within the period of February 26th to March 5th, the FTSE China index, in sterling terms, fell 11.4%. However, this did follow a gain of 13% in the previous six trading sessions with the falls being attributed to fears that the Chinese authorities were planning to cool down the excesses in the market in an attempt to moderate growth to more sustainable and realistic levels. The falls in the Chinese market, the market...