New York - Stocks finished their week-long roller coaster ride on the US financial crisis just about where they started, with the three major US indices Friday making a second day of huge rebounds.

Stock indices careened up and down through the week by as much as 4 per cent a day over a major bankruptcy and bank merger and as the US government bailed out the insurance giant American International Group Inc.

The interconnected world's markets rode along for the wild ride.

Amman - Arab stock markets tumbled this week in response to the collapse of the US Lehman Brothers bank, and financial analysts said Friday they did not exclude further repercussions on regional markets.

"The direction of markets is unclear," Nizar Taher, chief of brokerage at the Jordan Ahli Bank told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"Arab markets reacted violently to latest developments in the United States, an indication that there are investors who work in the two regions," he said.

Sydney  - Australia's securities regulator Friday joined its counterparts in the United States and Britain in curbing the short-selling of shares that has contributed to the tumult on stock markets.

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) ruled that from Monday a temporary ban on what's called naked short-selling would take effect.

In naked short-selling, traders sell shares they don't actually own in the hope of buying them later at a cheaper price. ASIC said it was concerned some individuals were spreading false and misleading information about listed companies to provoke fire sales of securities at low prices.

Hanoi  - The Vietnamese stock market rebounded sharply Friday following Thursday's rebound in the US stock market.

The volatile VN-Index ended up 4.7 per cent, to close at 439.06.

Market volume totaled 25.5 million shares, valued at 850 billion dong (51 million dollars), up from 457 billion dong (27 million dollars) on Thursday.

Phan Hong Quan, director of Eurocapital Securities company, credited the rebound of the US and regional stock markets.

The Vietnamese market had fallen in nine of the last ten sessions on US worries, losing 21 per cent of its value, and investors felt it could not fall much further.

Jakarta - Indonesia's stock market rose by more than 5 per cent Friday, sparked by regional rebounds following overnight gains on Wall Street and signs that US authorities might take new measures

Berlin - Germany hardened its stance Friday in a dispute with the European Union and Porsche about state influence over Europe's biggest carmaker, Volkswagen.

German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries said Germany would keep legislation that grants the state of Lower Saxony veto powers at VW, despite this week's proclamation by Porsche that it has an effective majority of VW.

"There is no reason completely to abolish the Volkwagen Law. The EU Commission should accept that," Zypries told members of the Bundesrat upper chamber in Berlin, referring to a threat by the European Commission to fine Germany.