Stockholm/Oslo  - The Oslo bourse on Tuesday afternoon hit an annual low before rebounding on the news that US Federal Reserve had injected 50 billion dollars of reserves into the banking system.

The Oslo index was down almost 9 per cent before clawing back, and with less than a half hour of the trading session was down 4.3 per cent.

Shares in oil companies including state-controlled Statoil Hydro were impacted as crude prices declined.

The Stockholm bourse index continued to drop and was down some 2.4 per cent about 40 minutes before the end of trading session. Losers on the market included banking shares as well as energy sector shares.

Swedish central bank governor Stefan Ingves told Swedish radio news that the Swedish finance system was stable, and said that Sweden experienced a greater financial crisis in the early 1990s when the economy contracted three years in a row. (dpa)