Frankfurt  - The European Central Bank was joined by the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan in pumping more than 150 billion dollars into financial markets in attempts to stem the tide in the fallout from the US credit crunch.

The ECB on Tuesday pumped 70 billion euros (99.9 billion dollars) into financial institutions, in addition to the 30 billion euros that it provided on Monday.

The Bank of England on Tuesday provided an extra 20 billion pounds (36 billion dollars), while Japan's central bank added 2.5 trillion yen (23.65 billion dollars) into money markets to ease the impact of the failure of the US investment bank Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.

On Monday European central banks together infused 36.3 billion euros into the markets.

Share prices declined for the second day in a row on Tuesday as fallout from the US credit crunch continued to play havoc on stock markets.

The major exchanges in London, Paris and Frankfurt all edged downward, although losses were not as great as on Monday when more than 4 per cent was wiped off the value of shares.

Again, banks and other financial institutes were the biggest losers as the markets studied the implications of Monday's collapse of top US investment broker Lehman Brothers.

In Frankfurt, Commerzbank suffered a dramatic fall of close to 18 per cent to 13.08 euros, as the leading DAX index saw a 2.7-per-cent fall on the day to levels around 5900.

Deutsche Post Bank and insurer Allianz, which is in the throes of selling its subsidiary, Dresdner Bank, to Commerzbank suffered falls of around 10 per cent.

Only five of the 30 shares listed on the DAX were in positive territory, led by Volkswagen, which rose 2.45 per cent on news that Porsche had taken a controlling stake.

After a roller-coaster session that saw the Paris Bourse's benchmark CAC 40 flirting with a gain early in the day, shares plummeted by 2.85 per cent in mid-afternoon trading, to 4,049.96.

Belgian bank Dexia, which said Monday it owned 500 million euros (709 million dollars) in unsecured bonds of the bankrupt US investment bank Lehman Brothers, led losers, falling by 13.30 per cent.

French bank Credit Agricole lost 9.73 per cent while Societe Generale and BNP Paribas were down 7.18 and 6.5 per cent, respectively.

In London, the Financial Times Index fell by 2.9 per cent to its lowest level since June 2005. For the second day, Britain's biggest mortgage lender, Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS), was hardest hit, seeing its share price drop more than 26 per cent to 171.2 pence.

At one point, the HBOS share price dipped by 57 per cent before recovering. As on Monday, shares in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) were also badly affected, falling by nearly 20 per cent to 190.7 pence.

Barclays dipped by 16.75 pence to 299.25 pence after the leading British bank announced that it was seeking to buy some of Lehman Brothers' assets.

In Vienna, Austria's leading index ATX lost 6.28 per cent of its value by 3:30 pm, falling below the 3,000 mark for the first time in more than three years.

The market was pulled down by Raiffeisen International Bank- Holding AG, which plummeted by 11.76 per cent, and Vienna's airport Flughafen Wien AG, which declined 10.65 per cent.

The Ibex-35, the main index of the Madrid stock exchange, plunged 2.1 per cent. Banks Santander, Sabadell and Banco Popular tumbled 1.8 per cent, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) 1.25 per cent, and Banesto 0.57 per cent.

In Oslo, the OSEBX index was down 3 per cent mid-morning as oil shares declined because of a drop in crude prices. The Stockholm bourse was down 1 per cent, with banks and energy companies the biggest losers.

In Berlin, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck called for calm, although he acknowledged a "very difficult and serious situation" on world financial markets.

Although the crisis was the worst in decades, there would be no "domino effects" in Europe and no widespread bank failures, Steinbrueck predicted. (dpa)