Vienna - Shares traded on the Vienna Stock Exchange fell to a three-year low Tuesday, continuing Monday's downward movement started by the news about US investor Lehman Brother's bankruptcy.

By 15:30 local time, the ATX, Vienna's main stock index, had lost 6.28 per cent of its value. The index fell below the mark of 3,000 points for the first time since June 2005.

Losses in Vienna were more pronounced than on Germany's DAX index, which was down 2.86 per cent in the afternoon, and the Euro Stoxx 50 index monitoring large European companies, which lost 3.44 per cent.

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.