Frankfurt DAX: German shares ended below the psychological 4,000-point level as a sharp plunge on the Hong Kong market rattled global investors. In bourse trade, the blue-chip DAX index finished 194.19 points or 4.66 per cent lower at 3977.26. This was the biggest fall of the year for the index, but the decline was exaggerated as the index was also catching up with Wednesday's post-bourse losses on the IBIS index, which reflects after-hours trading.
"(The slide) is not something that can really be based on a real analytical argument, but there's just a fear that what happened in the Hong Kong market might happen in the German market," said Mr Wieland Staud, chief German equities strategist at Yamaichi in Frankfurt. Like most European markets, Germany will again react this morning to developments overnight the the US and the Far East.
Paris CAC-40: Share prices nosedived by 3.42 per cent as French luxury-products companies with an Asian presence suffered heavily from turmoil on South-east Asian markets. French Finance Minister Mr Dominique StraussKahn, warning of potentially "very great" instability in the Asian region, said that international organisations, and mainly the International Monetary Fund, should become involved in a steadying operation.
Traders said there were no developments in Paris that might pull the bourse up.
"This is a market that is short of ideas so it is technical," one said, adding the technical outlook looked bleak.
Traders said the market's fall may have been exaggerated by speculation but saw no improvement in the near future.
Milan Mibtel: Italian shares pared their early losses, but the outlook remains uncertain after the panic selling on Far Eastern markets. In early trading the Mibtel index was down as much as 2.5 per cent, although in tandem with most other European markets it regained some ground in late trading.
Banca di Roma held early gains, closing 1.61 per cent up at 1,708 after Russia's MES said it will hold talks in Rome today and Monday over buying a stake in the bank.
Olivetti, which is awaiting the conclusion of its Olsy divestment, bucked the trend, rising 1.36 per cent to 1,040.
Carlo De Benedetti's industrial holding company CIR was one of the poorer performers of the session, ending down 4.62 per cent at 1,405 after recent heady gains on talk it planned to sell part of subsidiary Sogefi, which CIR denied.
