Stock markets LIVE: FTSE 100 plummets to worst day since Covid pandemic in tariff chaos

China's announcement on Friday that it will impose a 34% tariff on imports of all US products beginning April 10, as part of a flurry of retaliatory measures following Donald Trump's "Liberation Day", has sent the markets in free fall. The FTSE 100 plunged just minutes after the move was announced by Beijing, falling to 8,160.40 and

The UK stock market then closed 4.95% down, marking its worst day since the onset of the Covid pandemic in March 2020. The banking sector was hit the hardest, sending Barclays and NatWest plunging. The FTSE 100's worst day this century came on the day before the first Covid lockdown, on March 12, 2020, whe it fell by 10.8%.

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