Norway experienced an especially severe stock-exchange decline during the 1987 global crash, with prices falling about 45%.
The worldwide crash began with heavy selling in October 1987 and spread rapidly across financial centers. Norway’s market was among the hardest hit, reflecting the international nature of the panic and the vulnerability of smaller exchanges to global portfolio decisions. The decline was far greater than the fall in many major markets.
The crash was influenced by high valuations, concern about interest rates and international economic conditions, computerized trading, and portfolio-insurance strategies. No single explanation accounts for every market’s movement, but the synchronized selling made the episode historically unusual.
Norway is sometimes omitted from popular accounts because attention usually focuses on the United States, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom. Yet the crash was global, and several countries recorded percentage losses larger than the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s famous one-day fall.