Frankfurt - European shares plunged about 5 per cent in early trading Thursday after recession fears wiped out the big gains in stock prices run up earlier this week in New York and across Asia.

Europe's blue-chip Stoxx50 dived by 5.4 per cent to 2,129 shortly after opening as new gloomy US data helped fuel concerns about the prospects of a protracted and deep recession.

London's FTSE index slumped by 5.17 per cent as the trading got under way in Europe's premier stock market.

This was reflected across national bourses with Frankfurt's DAX index sinking 4.8 per cent and Paris' CAC dropping 5 per cent as the optimism earlier this week generated by global government action to address the crisis vanished.

Sydney - Investors piled out of Australian stocks Thursday in response to Wall Street registering its biggest one-day percentage loss in 20 years.

The ASX 200 fell 286 points, or 7.1 per cent, to 4,013.

The US market buckled on fears that the global financial turmoil would lead to a recession.

Macquarie Bank economist Martin Laycoss said the slippage was a "follow-through from Wall Street's 7.8-per-cent fall. It was impossible for us to ignore that."

Wellington - The N

After marking its closure below 11K on Wednesday (Oct 15), the 30-share index BSE Sensex belled the day on a weak note on fears over a long lasting global economic recession activating a huge sell-off across worldwide markets.

The sharp 100 basis points cut in Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) failed to cause any significant buying this morning.

Realty, metal, IT, Oil & gas and power stocks suffered huge losses. 

BSE Midcap and Smallcap index fell 4.77% and 3.94% respectively.

Manila - Philippine shares

Tokyo - Markets across Asia plummeted on opening Thursday, dragged down by US retail sales data and concerns about whether bank bail-outs would be able to rescue financial markets and avert a recession.

The Tokyo stock market plummeted in early trading after Wall Street's blue-chip Dow Jones industrials lost nearly 8 per cent overnight amid growing recession fears in the United States and worldwide.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average plunged 911.91 points, or 9.55 per cent, to 8,635.56.