Wellington - The New Zealand stock market - the first in the world to start trading every day - fell nearly 3 per cent Tuesday morning in the wake of slumps on Wall Street and in London amid the deepening US financial crisis.

The benchmark index of top 50 stocks fell 96 points to 3,223, a drop of 2.8 per cent in the first two-and-a-half hours' trading after opening down 2.2 per cent on Monday night.

Sydney - Australian shares

New York/Washington  - The bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc and fears of more looming bank failures sent US investors running for the hills Monday in the latest sign of a deepening credit crisis in the United States.

Monday's trading on Wall Street saw the steepest selloff since the lending crunch began last year, as the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled more than 500 points - some 4.4 per cent - in its biggest one-day drop since October 2002.

New York  - Major US stock indices posted some of their worst losses in years on Monday in response to a significant deepening of the credit crisis and fears of widespread banking failures in the United States.

The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled more than 500 points - some 4.4 per cent - and closed below 11,000 for its biggest one-day drop since the September 2001 terrorist attacks. The broader Standard & Poor's 500 Index plunged more than 4.7 per cent for its lowest close since October 2005.

Domestic brokerage house, SMC Group, had entered into joint venture agreements (JV) with Sanlam Investments to offer wealth and asset management services.

Washington - US President George W Bush on Monday warned that a "painful" series of short-term adjustments were needed in the financial sector but insisted the fundamentals remained strong despite the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings.

Bush said he appreciated the work of the US Treasury and Wall Street firms in helping foster stability in financial markets, which have been hit hard by the ongoing credit crisis.