Shares sag to 50% of dotcom peak
"At the close of another jittery day for share dealers and investors, the FTSE had lost 122.9 points - or 3.4% of its value - to close at 3,480.8. During the day the blue-chip index reached 3,460.3, less than half its value since the peak of 6,950 reached at the peak of the dotcom market excess in December 1999.
Only one share in the list of 100 leading UK companies - Rentokil Initial - (Wonderfully appropriate!!) ended up on the day, with some shell-shocked dealers predicting that the market may lose up to a further 500 points before reaching a floor.
The hawkish tone of the report by the UN weapons inspector, Hans Blix, intensified fears of an imminent military campaign against Baghdad and exerted renewed pressure on both shares and the ailing US dollar. "
Demands for Herr Blix to be called before the Stock Exchange Disciplinary Committee have echoed around the globe.
"How can hard trading greedy bastards like us make a dishonest living when you have pricks like him scaring the bejesus out of the punters", exclaimed Sir Jeremiah Legge-Orpington, chairman of Shylock, Faust and Graught. "If the World economy goes pork belly up it will be this man's fault. He has no right sticking his nose into other people's businesses."
"I personally informed him before he started this fishing expedition that our company had never supplied Iraq with materials that could be used for weapons of mass destruction. Well, certainly not since last Wednesday. That should have been an end to it! If it's good enough for those young kiddies who audit our company to take our word for everything, it should be good enough for him. Bloody Swedes, they should be out reviving their flagging international tennis profile, not making life impossible for us chaps."
"This man is the greatest threat to the World economy since the South Sea Bubble debacle. That Saddam fellow isn't as bad as Blix is attempting to make him out. He spends up big, pays on the knocker and always sends us a Christmas card."
