Nobody panic, but here's what the FTSE 100 did this week

Financial markets endured chaotic slides on Friday as £113bn (!!) was wiped off the value of leading British companies in the first ten trading days of the year.

All three stock indices (Dow Jones industrial average, the Nasdaq composite and the Standard & Poor's 500) are now in correction – a drop of over 10 per cent from their recent peaks – attributed by analysts to the falling prices of oil and market slowdown in China.

The FTSE 100 closed at its lowest level for three years, the last two of which look like this:

The past fortnight marked the worst new year start for the index in its 31 year history - half the dates in the ten lowest closing days for the index for the past two years are from January 2016.

Ten lowest closing days for FTSE 100 index in last two years

Date - Adjusted close (GBP)

15 January 2016 - 5804.100098
11 January 2016 - 5871.799805
14 December 2015 - 5874.100098
24 August 2015 - 5898.899902
29 September 2015 - 5909.200195
08 January 2016 - 5912.399902
14 January 2016 - 5918.200195
12 January 2016 - 5929.200195
22 September 2015 - 5935.799805
11 December 2015 - 5952.799805

Data: Yahoo Finance

RBS, the taxpayer-funded bank, warned investor clients this week to "sell everything" and its credit chief Andrew Roberts has warned that 2016 will be a "cataclysmic" year:

China has set off a major correction and it is going to snowball.

So, you know, nobody panic.