A long time coming

SINGAPORE (Feb 12): Last week’s sharp plunge in stock prices has certainly jolted investors out of the complacency that has persisted through the better part of the past two years.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA), the most closely watched index in the world, fell 666 points on Feb 2, only to be followed by a 1,175-point drop — the biggest one-day decline ever — on Feb 5. Meanwhile, the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell as much as 9.7% in little over a week, fresh from hitting record-high levels on Jan 26.

The rout on Wall Street went on to trigger selling across Asian and European markets. The Singapore Straits Times Index and FBM KLCI fell 3.54% and 1.56%, respectively, over the past one week.

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