Global market rout continues; US, China, Athens stocks plummet

The rout in global markets continued to intensify with Dow Jones Industrial Average diving more than 500 points while Chinese stock market had their worst day in eight years, a media report said. The Wall Street suffered the worst ever loss in four years as the Dow Jones slumped 1,000 points in its most volatile intra-day trade ever. The Athens Stock Exchange general price index on the other hand dropped to a three-year low on Monday amid uncertainty over the forthcoming snap general elections in Greece and developments in global economy.

The Dow tumbled 588.47 points, or 3.58 per cent, to 15,871.28. The S&P 500 shed 77.68 points, or 3.94 per cent, to 1,893.21 on Monday, Xinhua reported.

The Nasdaq Composite Index sank 179.79 points, or 3.82 per cent, to 4,526.25.

The New York Stock Exchange invoked a rule saying market makers do not have to disseminate price indications before the opening bell in an effort to make it easier and faster to open stocks on a volatile trading day, according to Reuters.

The Chinese stock markets had their worst day in eight years with the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index tumbling 8.49 per cent to close at 3,209.91 points.

It has been reported that weak economic data have fuelled worries that a drop-off in Chinese growth could cause a global slowdown.

European equities also dived on Monday following previous session's deep decline, as the Stoxx Europe 600 was down over six per cent and Germany's DAX fell four per cent.

Last week, the three major indices witnessed the worst week in nearly four years, with the Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq diving 5.8 per cent, 5.8 per cent and 6.8 per cent, respectively.

The Athens Stock Exchange general price index closed at 568.38 points, down by 10.54 per cent from Friday. During Monday's trading it had briefly sank to 562.87 points (11.4 per cent), Xinhua reported.

In other markets, the US dollar dropped against most major currencies on Monday as investors lowered their expectation for an interest-rate hike this year. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against six major peers, was down 1.71 per cent at 93.386 in late trading.

In late New York trading, the euro rose to $1.1591 from $1.1359 in the previous session, while the dollar bought 118.62 Japanese yen, lower than 122.06 yen of the previous session.

Gold futures on the COMEX division of the New York Mercantile Exchange fell on Monday following a slump in other metals, despite a weakening US dollar.

The most active gold contract for December delivery fell $6, or 0.52 per cent, to settle at $1,153.60 per ounce.