Right from the stock market opening Monday morning at 9 o’clock, it plunged, and at its lowest, it was down a full 4 percent.
The development was the same on other Nordic stock exchanges and on the major exchanges in Europe. Also in Asia, the stock markets closed in free fall, while Wall Street opened Monday afternoon Norwegian time with a sharp decline.
Read also: Dramatic drop at the opening of the stock market in the USA: – No place to hide
Mostly Red
Oil prices also fell on Monday. After North Sea oil dropped to 75.86 dollars a barrel, which was the lowest since December last year, it stood at 76.11 dollars at 4:30 PM.
Weak employment figures in the USA before the weekend were the triggering reason for the stock market decline that began on Friday and continued on Monday. The market fears that it might head towards recession in the USA.
Among the most traded companies on the Oslo Stock Exchange, Equinor is down 2.44 percent, DNB down 3.84 percent, Aker BP down 2.89 percent, and Frontline down 2.5 percent. Only Höegh Autoliners (+0.18 percent) could boast an increase among Monday’s most traded.
Read also: Oslo Stock Exchange opens with a sharp decline Monday morning
– Don’t sell out
Norwegian economists warn against selling out of funds now due to the market crash.
– Generally, it is a bad strategy to sell in panic, said consumer economist Magne Gundersen at Sparebank 1.
He points out that if you have kept your savings in funds over the past year, you have received far better returns than if you had just kept the money in the bank.
Interest and currency strategist Nils Kristian Knudsen at Handelsbanken says that market declines are part of the risk of having money in funds, and that the best thing to do is to stay calm.