http://au.rd.yahoo.com/headlines/cobrand/SIG=10n1rur92/*http%3A//www.afp.com/Tuesday March 6, 02:41 AM
Global stock market slump continuesLONDON (AFP) - Stock markets in Asia, Europe and the United States spiralled lower on Monday, compounding last week's sharp losses, driven by weak investor confidence and warnings of a strong correction.
Wall Street shares opened lower as various concerns -- ranging from unease about economic growth in the United States to worries over China's stock market boom -- rattled investors around the globe. However, European indices pared their losses in late afternoon deals.
Equities started sliding last week as investors took profits from high stock prices and cut their risk exposure amid fears of a strong correction to markets after many indices had hit multi-year peaks earlier in the year.
"Some sort of consolidation was due and with a background of rising interest rates, the markets were vulnerable, and along came a lot of profit-taking in China and that was enough to kick-start the whole thing," said Mike Lenhoff, analyst with Brewin Dolphin Securities in London.
"What we are seeing is the progress of a correction and ... it will run its course when the markets have got to a 10-percent correction from top to bottom."
In opening New York trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 0.49 percent to 12,055.21 points.
The broad-market Standard and Poor's 500 index shed 0.55 percent to 1,397.48 points while the tech-laden Nasdaq composite was down 0.91 percent at 2,346.36.
The falls came after the Dow had lost 4.2 percent last week in the worst showing since March 2003. Traders said the coming week could be just as volatile for the US markets.
Investors were spooked last week by sharp falls in Chinese share prices and comments about a possible recession in the United States by former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan. As a result, world stocks indices suffered steep losses of between four and ten percent.
In late afternoon European trade on Monday, London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares tumbled 1.07 percent to 6,049.50 points, after earlier sinking beneath 6,000 points for the first time since October 9, 2006.
Lenhoff forecast that the FTSE would hit a low point of 5,800 points during the current correction.
Frankfurt's DAX 30 dived 1.42 percent to 6,509.71 points and in Paris the CAC 40 lost 0.66 percent to 5,388.64.
"Losses (on Wall Street) ahead of the weekend break have already taken their toll on Asian markets in early trade and the impact is likely to be significant for European stocks," said Matt Buckland, trader at CMC Markets.
A fresh wave of selling struck US stocks on Friday at the end of a bad week for global markets, as economic concerns resurfaced and investors retrenched before the weekend.
On Monday, the
Tokyo market extended its losing streak to a fifth trading day, closing down 3.34 percent at the lowest level for over two months on concerns about the health of global markets and a stronger yen, dealers said.
In Moscow, the
Russian market lost more than five percent of its value by mid-day on Monday after a cumulative loss of seven percent last week.
Indian share prices plunged almost four percent Monday in line with other Asian bourses.
Investors in China endured a rollercoaster ride last week as the key index in Shanghai recorded its sharpest single-day decline in 10 years amid fears the government would slap capital gains taxes on securities investments.
On Monday, the
Shanghai Composite Index fell 1.63 percent to 2,785.31 points.
"It did start with what happened in
China," Lenhoff said of last Tuesday's near 9.0-percent plunge in Chinese share prices.
"All you need is some sort of trigger for a shake-out if markets are vulnerable, which they were anyway because they had risen without any major consolidation since the trauma of last May."
Other financial markets were roiled by the continued downturn.
Crude oil prices dropped about a dollar per barrel on Monday as traders reacted to heavy falls in equities.
The yen meanwhile hit three-month highs against the dollar and euro on Monday, as the Japanese currency continued to benefit from the global stock market slump, dealers said.
They added that the dollar's slump against the yen highlighted an unwinding of so-called yen carry trades by speculators who have binged on Japan's cheap credit to fund investments elsewhere.
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