Hong Kong - Hong Kong shares fell by almost 5 per cent Wednesday as a rebound triggered by optimism over the global bank bail-outs began to fizzle out.

The Hang Seng Index lost 834.58 points, or 4.96 per cent, to end the day back below the 16,000 barrier at 15,998.3. Turnover was 52 billion Hong Kong dollars (6.7 billion US dollars).

The heavy losses ended two consecutive days of gains on the blue-chip index which rallied by 3 per cent Tuesday and more than 10 per cent Monday.

Analysts warned ahead of Wednesday's losses that the apparently bright start to the week amounted to a technical rebound only and that a prolonged rally was unlikely.

Seoul - Shares were down sharply Wedne

Frankfurt - A downbeat end to share trading in Wall Street and across Asia, resulted in a weak start to stocks in Europe Wednesday as recession fears resurfaced.

After two successive days of strong gains, Indian equities plummeted into the negative terrain in today’s session on fears of slowdown in the financial system.

Indian equities continued to trade weak due to heavy selling action seen across board. 

All the sectoral indices were hammered badly.

BSE Midcap and Smallcap index declined more than 4% each.

Today, the 30-share index BSE Sensex started the day with a loss of 238.13 points, at 11,245.27 on Wednesday. 

Madrid - Spain's main Ibex-35 index reacted to the slowdown on Wall Street, slipping 1.2 per cent to 10,103 points as trading opened on Wednesday.

New Delhi - Indian equities fell by more than 3 per cent in early trade on Wednesday after a two-day rally, following cues from stock exchanges in New York and Tokyo.

The 30-share Sensex of the Bombay Stock Exchange lost 373.68 points on funds selling metal, information technology and banking stocks, following weakening markets.

The index which had gained 955 points over the past two sessions fell to 11,109.72, a loss of 3.25 per cent at 11:55 am (0625 GMT).

Similarly, the broader 50-share Nifty index fell by 84.95 points to 3433.70, a decline of 2.41 per cent.

Market analysts said weakness at the US markets and similar trends in other Asian bourses including the Tokyo stock exchange pulled down trading sentiment.