insto - Australian financial markets

Investors who jumped from skyscrapers in 1929 and those who sold out in panic after the 1987 crash should at least have provided historical lessons to those who watched in dismay as the Australian sharemarket plunged by more than 40 per cent in 2008.

It will never be known to what extent that historical experience was heeded, but it is a matter of record that the ASX All Ordinaries Index gained 33.4 per cent over 2009, after falling 43 per cent in 2008. The other main index, the S&P/ASX 200, put on 30.8 per cent after slumping 41.3 per cent the previous year.