Global markets go downhill on US worries

New Delhi, Aug 5: Staying true to the age-old saying that ''when America sneezes, the world catches a cold'', the stocks markets across the globe today (Aug 5) plunged deep into red after an overnight crash in the U.S bourses.

The tremors of US stock market, where the benchmark index Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) fell by over 500 points on Thursday, marking its biggest fall in over two and half years, were felt in all Asian and European markets this morning.

Taiwan, Japan, Hong Kong were among the worst sufferers, while Indian markets were seen recovering some of the lost ground after falling by more than 4 per cent to their lowest level in over a year.

The US markets saw fall of over 4 per cent last evening amid fears that the American economy was moving back towards recession following weak economic data on jobs and manufacturing.

Mirroring the trend, the Asian markets opened weak today with similar trends seen later in Europe.

However, Indian bourses recovered some of the lost ground after assurances from the government and the regulator that fundamentals were strong and today's fall was only due to global factors.

While, the Shanghai market was down by over 2 per cent, Japan's Nikkei index fell by nearly 4 per cent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng index declined by over 4 per cent. The Taiwan market fell by nearly 6 per cent.

The UK markets were down nearly 3 per cent, while the losses were around 2 per cent in other major European markets.

The US markets have been on a downward spiral for eight consecutive days and a similar trend has been seen in most of the European markets. The Indian bourses have also been in the red for four trading sessions now.

The US is among the major markets for most of the global economies, including India, and therefore any problems with the American economy generally impacts other markets.

PTI