London  - The Bank of England Tuesday pumped an extra 20 billion pounds (36 billion dollars) into money markets, following a similar move by the European Central Bank (ECB).

Bangkok  - Thai shares lost 2.8 per cent of their value Tuesday as the Bangkok bourse felt the full impact of Wall Street's declines.

Stockholm/Oslo  - Nordic bourses dipped Tuesday, the day after US investment banker Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy protection, triggering a global decline on stock markets.

New York  - Three major US rating agencies have downgraded another victim of the US credit crunch, insurance conglomerate American International Group (AIG), reports said Tuesday.

Standard and Poor's, Moody's and Fitch lowered AIG's previous good-to-very-good credit rating to good-to-satisfactory after Wall Street financial institutes came under pressure to bail out the company.

The downgrading makes it more difficult for the struggling insurance giant to raise capital on financial markets to meet its obligations.

The rating agencies also placed AIG under observation and did not rule out a further lowering of its credit-worthiness ratings.

Paris - The day after Wall Street posted its worst loss since 2001, French shares were down only moderately on Tuesday, with bank stocks again leading the losers.

One hour after the opening of the Paris Bourse, shares in its benchmark CAC 40 were down 1.39 per cent, to stand at 4,111.06.

Belgian bank Dexia, which owns 500 million euros (709 million dollars) in unsecured bonds of the bankrupt US investment bank Lehman Brothers, led the way down, losing nearly 5 per cent of its value.

Berlin - German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck called for calm Tuesday, although he acknowledged a "very difficult and serious situation" on world financial markets.

Germany's DAX index of the leading 30 shares declined 1.6 per cent on opening to fall to 5,970, following Asian markets into negative territory.

Speaking ahead of the start of the 2009 budget debates in the German lower house of parliament, Steinbrueck insisted the effects of the financial crisis on the German real economy would be "limited."