Frankfurt - Global shares are ending the week on a grim note, with a new wave of selling hitting European stocks Friday as concerns grew about the outlook for corporate profits.

Picking up on steep falls on Asian markets and volatile trading on Wall Street, Europe's blue-chip Stoxx 50 plunged more than 6 per cent in early trading Friday with a steady stream of weak third-quarter earnings reports fuelling worries about a looming recession.

The sense of gloom was repeated across national European bourses, with London slumping 5.8 per cent, the CAC 40 index tumbling 6.4 per cent and Zurich falling 4.5 per cent amid fears that the OPEC oil producing nations will cut production.

Worries about the impact of a sharp economic slowdown on European exports helped to drive down shares in Frankfurt about 7 per cent to a three-year low. Germany is the world's leading export nation.

At the same time, downbeat corporate earnings have continued to roll in, with companies painting a bleak picture of the business outlook for key industries.

Despite a possible OPEC production cut, the growing recession fears resulted in another sharp drop in oil prices, which fell about 4 per cent to 65.23 dollars a barrel.

Expectations that the slowing global economy and weaker inflation projections will result in the European Central Bank cutting interest rates again resulted in the euro hitting a three-low of below 1.26 dollars.

By late morning, the euro had dropped 2.7 per cent to 1.2546 dollars. Earlier this year, the euro climbed to all-time high of more than
1.60 dollars.

The big falls in European stocks came in the wake of shares in Tokyo cascading down almost 10 per cent and stocks in Hong Kong dropping nearly 8 per cent. The Shanghai composite was off 2.4 per cent. (dpa)