THE UK's main share index, the FTSE 100, has plummeted by a record amount since the financial crash as the coronavirus outbreak has hit global businesses.

Starting the day at 5876.52, it hit a low of 5254.32 at 3.50pm – a drop of 622.2 points (almost 10.6%).

By close, it had hit 5237.48 – a drop of 10.87% – making it the second-worst plummet in history.

FTSE biggest drops



Oct 20th 1987 -12.22%

Oct 19th 1987 -10.84%

Oct 10th 2008 -8.85%

Oct 6th 2008 -7.85%



Right now it's -8.5% — Neil Wilson (@marketsneil) March 12, 2020

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Ed Conway, economics editor for Sky News said: "If the FTSE 100 closed right now this would be a worse one-day fall than any single day during the financial crisis. Worse than any single day since Black Monday in 1987."

The fall is attributed to investors panicking as they see the global economy slow down during the outbreak, with many countries introducing quarantines.

At the start of US trading, the shares plunged hard enough that the market was suspended temporarily to prevent panicked selling hurting the FTSE 100 further. This is an automatic system which responds to sudden surges in selling.

The Dow also fell more than 9% among US indexes.

In the UK, every single share in the FTSE 100 lost value, with travel companies seeing the biggest falls. Airline IAG fell more than 10% and Tui fell 20%.

Cineworld saw its shares fall 40% and has warned that it may not be able to repay its debts.

This comes after the US central bank and Bank of England attempted to curb the worst of the panic by cutting rates, however, the effect has been minimal.

The pound fell against the dollar, sitting at 1.2580 dollars compared to 1.2866 dollars at the previous close.

The European stocks index has ended the day with its biggest loss on record.

The Stoxx Europe 600 index, which measures major stocks across the region, fell 11.5%, its worst day on record.

It eclipsed the 8.5% drop during the 1987 stock market crash.

Germany's DAX plunged 12.2%, which is more than it lost after the attacks of September 11 2001, France's CAC 40 12.3% and Italy's FTSE MIB a massive 16.9%.

Investors worried about a US travel ban that covers much of Europe and could presage tougher government limits on business activity in order to clamp down on the virus outbreak.

Some analysts also noted how European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde underscored how it was mainly up to governments, not central banks, to help the economy through the disruption of the outbreak.