Washington  - US stocks dropped Tuesday by more than 1 per cent, in the worst two-day slump in six years on concern that Congress won't act fast enough to adopt the government's 700-billion- dollar bank rescue plan that the central bank head says is direly needed to avoid a recession.

Hardest hit companies included General Motors Corp, department store chain Dillard's Inc and Regions Financial Corp, which tumbled more than 7 per cent. Members of the Senate banking committee Tuesday were sceptical over US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's plan.

New Delhi - Indian equities fell by 3 per cent in trading Tuesday on weakness in global bourses and rising crude oil prices.

The benchmark 30-share sensitive Sensex index closed at 13,570.31 points, down 424.65 points, a loss of 3.03 per cent from its previous close Monday.

The broader National Stock Exchange's Nifty index also ended in the red at 4,126.90, down 96.15 or 2.28 percent from the previous close at 4,223.05.

Technology stocks were the hardest hit as Infosys, Satyam Computers and Tata Consultancies suffered the most.

Karachi - Pakistan's Karachi Stock Exchange on Tuesday banned short-selling in all stocks following Moody's down-grading of the country's credit rating, traders said.

The ban on short-selling follows similar moves this week by Wall Street and other top international markets to avoid dangerous speculation in tumultuous economic times.

The Karachi bourse, which is already virtually at a standstill, is expected to lift the cap by early next month.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong stocks ended a two-day rally Tuesday and fell back 3.87 per cent amid faltering confidence in the US plan to rescue large Wall Street debtors.

The blue-chip Hang Seng Index lost 759.35 points to end the day at 18,872.85 points. Turnover was 64.3 billion US dollars (8.27 billion US dollars).

The decline followed two days of strong gains that took the Hong Kong index to within touching distance of the 20,000-point mark by Monday.

Sydney - Australian shares gave up some of their recent gains Tuesday in response to an overnight plunge on Wall Street.

The ASX 200 lost 111 points, or 2.2 per cent, to trade at 4,798 by the middle of the session.

The downturn came after two days of gains that had seen the index climb almost 10 per cent. It was still down by a quarter from its peak in November.

Again, financial counters were the worst hit. Macquarie Group Ltd gave up more than 7 per cent after soaring 45 per cent in the previous two sessions.

The Sensex continued to trade in the negative terrain on account of profit booking witnessed in frontline stocks such as real estate, banking and IT.

However, oil & gas stocks went up.

At 11.54 a.m., the 30-share index Sensex was trading down 104.28 points at 13,890.68. It also hit an intra-day high of 13,978.26 and an intra-day low of 13,721.42.