Beijing - China's main stock market index lost more than 4 per cent on Thursday as shares followed the global fall after more bad news from Wall Street on Wednesday.

Paris - After losing more than 6 per cent of their value shortly after opening, French shares mounted a spirited fightback early Tuesday despite big losses on Wall Street and in Asia.

One hour after trading opened, the Paris Bourse's CAC 40 blue-chip index was down 2.09 per cent, at 3,310.52, as declining issues outpaced advancing shares by about 12 to 1.

Because of mounting fears of a recession, industrials were hardest hit, with steel giant ArcelorMittal and steel maker Vallourec both down more than 5 per cent.

Seoul - Shares nosedived Thursday on the Seoul stock exchange, sending the benchmark Kospi Index down more than 9 per cent in the biggest percentage loss in seven years, as worries over a global e

London - The Financial Times Share Index (Foo

Frankfurt - European shares plunged about 5 per cent in early trading Thursday after recession fears wiped out the big gains in stock prices run up earlier this week in New York and across Asia.

Europe's blue-chip Stoxx50 dived by 5.4 per cent to 2,129 shortly after opening as new gloomy US data helped fuel concerns about the prospects of a protracted and deep recession.

London's FTSE index slumped by 5.17 per cent as the trading got under way in Europe's premier stock market.

This was reflected across national bourses with Frankfurt's DAX index sinking 4.8 per cent and Paris' CAC dropping 5 per cent as the optimism earlier this week generated by global government action to address the crisis vanished.

Sydney - Investors piled out of Australian stocks Thursday in response to Wall Street registering its biggest one-day percentage loss in 20 years.

The ASX 200 fell 286 points, or 7.1 per cent, to 4,013.

The US market buckled on fears that the global financial turmoil would lead to a recession.

Macquarie Bank economist Martin Laycoss said the slippage was a "follow-through from Wall Street's 7.8-per-cent fall. It was impossible for us to ignore that."