FTSE 100 falls to six-week low after Asia sell-off Emerging markets in Asia have borne the brunt of the jitters about the future of US stimulus, where the fear is that an end to cheap money and an improvement in the performance of advanced economies will reverse a flow of much-needed capital. Indonesia and India, which require the inflows to fund balance of payments shortfalls, saw their stock markets fall 4pc and 1pc respectively, as their currencies continued to tumble. Japan's Nikkei slumped too, falling 2.7pc, reflecting the exposure of many Japanese companies to India and Indonesia. The rupee and Indonesia's rupiah as well the Thai baht saw some relief in European trading but Callum Henderson, head of FX research for Standard Chartered, said things may only settle down once the Fed's plans become clear. Our base case is that the Fed will announce the start of a modest and gradual tapering at its September meeting. By then it should be fully priced in, so it seems logical that we would see some degree of stabilisation," he said. If we also get a continued improvement in Chinese economic data then Asian currencies could find a more solid floor but for now having gained so much on the back of Fed QE from 2009 to 2012, some of that is being given back. Ramin Nakisa, a global macro strategist for UBS in London, said market turbulence was bound to pick up further as the Fed starts to switch policy direction. We expect volatility... People will start to wonder whether there is anything in the fixed-income world that really is safe," he said, adding that there was also likely to be another short selloff in share markets.