By Suzanna Kerridge, 12 September 2001 12:15
NEWS US stock exchanges and the securities market remained closed today following yesterday's terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), Nasdaq and the American Stock Exchange said only that after consultation with the Securities and Exchange Commission will the markets be reopened. Not since the World War Two has the NYSE remained closed for more than a day. The longest closure was for four months during World War One. In addition, exchanges in Chicago, Philadelphia and the Pacific stock exchanges shut their doors. Financial analysts have predicted potentially debilitating long-term affects of the attack, claiming suspended trading could damage an already weak US economy. The World Trade Center housed many banking and investment companies including Morgan Stanley and Standard Chartered. Directly after the attack the dollar plunged against world currencies. Many US banks announced they were moving their foreign exchange operations to centres in Asia until normality returned to the US dollar, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal. The effects of the disaster were felt across European share indices. The Paris based CAC-40 sank to 4015.32 its lowest level since March 1999. In Germany the Xetra DAX fell victim to its biggest, the Nikkei dropped 6.71 per cent to 9602.27 while India's BSE 30 lost 3.74 per cent of its value levelling off at 3032.71.
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