Paris - After opening sharply higher in the wake of the US Federal Reserve's bail-out of insurance giant AIG, French shares were pulled into the red on Wednesday by a weak Wall Street, ending the session at a low for the year.
The Paris Bourse's benchmark CAC 40 closed off by 2.14 per cent, at 4.000.11, with losers outnumbering winners by 13 to 1.
The losers were led by troubled Franco-American telecoms equipment supplier Alcatel-Lucent, which slumped by 8.51 per cent, to 3.15 euros, and steel producer Arcelor-Mittal, which lost 7.96 per cent, to 39.67 euros.
Buoyed by the AIG rescue, insurance giant Axa was one of the session's bright lights, gaining 0.30 per cent, to 19.82 euros.
Wellington - The New Zealand stock market, which rallied Wednesday after recording its biggest fall in six years a day earlier, opened sharply lower Thursday following big losses overnight on Wall Street.
Sydney - Australian shares ga
Washington - In a country that prides itself on free-market principles, US taxpayer dollars are are already on the hook for more than 300 billion dollars in financial industry bailouts, and, by some accounts, the government is just getting started.
New York - US stocks fell sharply on Wednesday amid fears that more major bank failures could be around the corner, despite the government rescue of struggling insurance giant American International Group Inc (AIG).
