World stock slump hits second day
The markets were surprised by the speed and size of recent declines
Worldwide share prices have continued to fall, triggered by Tuesday's 9% losses on the Shanghai stock market.
The UK's FTSE 100 index fell 1.2% by midday trading. That took declines in the past two sessions to 3.4% and knocked £55bn off its total value.
France's Cac 40 index dropped by 1.1% and Germany's Dax lost 1%. Earlier, markets in Asia, Australia and India had all suffered substantial losses.
Investors are questioning the outlook for economic and earnings growth.
The current global stock sell-off was fuelled by speculation that China's government would try to clamp down on illegal share trading and might impose a capital gains tax on stock market earnings.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6402915.stm
As consumers, could this in any way affect us? I don't know how the stock markets work -well, besides the basic idea. Could this result in higher or lower prices on the products of the affected companies?