Hanoi - Vietnam's stock market hit its lowest mark in nearly three years Monday as the country's economic outlook worsened.

The VN-Index today closed down 1.03 points, or 0.32 percent, at 317.9, the lowest level since February 2006.

"Local traders don't want to buy at this time as they see the global market continue to fall," said Phan Hong Quan, director of Eurocapital Securities in Hanoi. "They favour holding cash, waiting for signs that the market is rebounding."

Seoul - Shares tumbled 3.4 per cent Monday on

After a depressing start and a subsequent sharp fall, Indian equities made a smart recovery this morning on the back of some spirited buying action in some of the frontline stocks.

IT, power and consumer goods gained ground, whereas realty and banking stocks went down due to the expected rate cut not happening during the last weekend.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap index gained 0.11% and 0.31% respectively.  

At 11:00 a.m., the 30-share index BSE Sensex, which tumbled to a low of 8708.85 after opening at 8840.53, rallied to 8,961.14, up 45.93 points.

India,

The Securities and Exchange Board of India, on Thursday said that short term selling is not a cause of market meltdown. SEBI Chairman futher added that it would not stop short selling as a regulator at this point of time.