Moscow - Russia's two leading stock exchanges halted trading for the second day Wednesday as banks appealed to the finance ministry for emergency loans amid global market turmoil.

Russia's Micex market and RTS suspended trading indefinitely at 12:10 pm Moscow time at the request of Russia's financial watchdog, both indexes said in statements.

The ruble-denominated Micex fell 3.09 per cent before trading was halted, a spokeswoman was quoted by news agency Interfax as saying, and the dollar-denominated RTS plunged 6.39 per cent in its first two hours of trading.

The RTS index lost 57 per cent since soaring to record heights in May.

Hong Kong - Hong Kong shares fell 3.63 per cent Wednesday as the fallout from the turmoil in the US banking sector continued to depress the market.

The Hang Seng Index, which dropped 5.4 per cent Tuesday, fell another 663.42 points to close Wednesday at 17,637.19. Turnover was 76.23 billion Hong Kong dollars 
(9.79 billion US dollars).

The index - which only 11 months ago hit a high of almost 32,000 - rose slightly in early trading as news broke of the US government bailout of the insurance giant American International Group Inc.

Taipei - Taiwan's government and economists were in agreement Wednesday that the US financial chaos would negatively hit local financial institutions, stock and property markets but only in the short term.

The island's Central Bank decided to cut its bank reserve ratios starting Thursday to free up 200 billion Taiwan dollars (6.25 billion US dollars) in a bid to ease fund flows and boost the local markets.

Beijing - China's biggest stock market followed global losses with a 3-percent plunge on Wednesday, led by falls in banking and real-estate shares.

The key Shanghai Composite Index, which tracks shares traded in local and foreign currencies, lost 2.90 per cent to end the day at a 22-month low of 1,929.05 points.

The smaller Shenzhen Composite Index fell by 1.89 per cent to close at 559.95 points.

Tokyo - As more Japanese companies affiliated with collapsed US investment bank Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy on Wednesday, the Japanese government said the nation's markets would only suffer limited negative effects from the fallout.

Sunrise Finance and Lehman Brothers Commercial Mortgage filed for bankruptcy Wednesday with total liabilities of around 7 billion dollars, news reports said.

New Delhi - The collapse of major Wall Street firms is likely to result in a tightening of liquidity, adverse impact on the banking sector and a slowdown for information-technology firms that serve customers in financial sectors, analysts said Wednesday.

The Reserve Bank of India, which had net foreign reserves of 288.8 billion dollars in the week ending September 5, has already taken measures to support the rupee which rose by 60 paisa against the dollar on Wednesday.

The central bank also barred Lehman's India subsidiary from remitting money to its parent company.