Long description

The image is a line graph showing the movement in the FTSE-100 index from its launch in 1984 to early 2020. Over that time the index rose from 1000 to over 7000. Whilst the trend has been clearly upwards there have been some significant falls in the index during these years – most significantly in the early 2000s and again in the late 2000s. The fall in the early 2000s resulted from the bursting of the ‘dotcom’ bubble (the speculation in internet-related companies). The fall in the late 2000s resulted from the worldwide banking crisis. The sharp fall in early 2020 relates to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.