Rocky start to new year for stock markets

After strong gains in global equity markets from March 2009 onwards, 2015 turned out to be a somewhat trickier year for equity investors.

For the year as a whole, the US and UK markets made modest losses and European markets made reasonable gains.

The US S&P 500 lost 0.4%; the Dow Jones lost 1.9%; and the UK FTSE 100 shed 4.9%.