Lowest ever FTSE mark?

[VenalWinfrey]

Does anybody know what is the lowest mark the FTSE has ever reached, or of somewhere I could check this? I heard today that it dipped below 5,000 and to the best of my knowledge this is fairly rare.

Thanks!

[kempie]

22 July, 2002 saw the FTSE close at 3,895.5

This was the the lowest level since September 1996. A slow recovery saw much of 1997 in the 4000s.

12 March, 2003 saw 3,287 which I believe is not the all-time low, a value for which I have yet to find confirmation.

[factor-fiction]

http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=%5EFTSE&t=m y&l=on&z=m&q=b&c=

On here you can look back more than twenty years. The index was only around 1000 in the mid 1980s

[kempie]

^ That's because the index began on 3 January 1984 with a base level of 1000.

The percentage drop-off over a period is the relevant figure to assess how badly the index is doing.