Monday's loss at the Wall Street wiped out all this year's gains. The Nasdaq composite index, heavily weighted with technology stocks, saw its worst one-day loss, wiping 140.43 points or 8.57 per cent to touch 1,499.25 as "bluest of blue" chips took the beating.

Asia-Pacific stock markets opened lower with Tokyo stock prices hitting a new 12-year low in early trading. The Nikkei average fell immediately after the market opened, dropping over 440 points at one point to hit an intra-day low of 13,664.74, the lowest since 1986. Last Friday, the Nikkei average fell below 14,000 for the first time since March 1986.Australianmarkets were down 2.5 per cent, New Zealand down 3.7 per cent, Hong Kong lower by 3.6 per cent, Singapore down by 2.2 per cent and Taiwan by 4.4 per cent.

As the day ended, the market was still under pressure and analysts were trying to figure out whether it was a correction or bears had taken over from bulls. No one knew for certain and trend over next few days should clarify.

The Standard and Poor 500 index on the US markets too fell 69.72 points, losing 6.8 per cent at 957.53 points yesterday. One of the major concern was said to be the fluid political situation in Russia and fears that the Communists might again take over with President Yeltsins's position becoming shaky. Morevoer President Clinton is not going for the Moscow summit with any bail-out proposal.

In India, the BSE sensitive index (Sensex) started lower at 2862.24 but touched the day's high of 2882.88 and a low of 2850.30 before finishing at 2862.55 with a sizeable loss of 71.30 points as compared to its pervious close of 2933.85. TheBSE-100 index lost 29.49 points to 1281.11 from the previous level of 1310.60.

Brokers said the trading sentiment was affected following the crash in the Dow Industrials on the New York Stock Exchange. The Asian markets followed suit as they dipped southwards during the day. ``The economic crisis in Russia, the problems in the Japanese economy and the dollar's decline against major currencies affected the sentiment in Indian markets also,'' said an analyst.

Foriegn funds sold in major counters like MTNL, ITC, SBI, Infosys, Zee Telefilms and Satyam Computers which brought down the index heavily. Even domestic funds were sellers of MTNL, SBI, Asian Paints, Gujarat A Cement and Satyam for squaring up positions on the last day of the current settlement at the National Stock Exchange (NSE).

In other markets, Taiwan is considering banning short selling to arrest fall in stock prices. The decline in the stock markets in the region is attributed to yesterday's fall in US markets. The panic started with reportsindicating that American banks might have lost millions of dollars in russian investments and the south asian crisis is affecting the profitability of international corporations.

Wall Street loses $ 3 tn

NEW YORK: Nearly $ three trillion, representing the equivalent of Germany's economy, have gone up in smoke on Wall Street in the last five weeks, estimates from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and the Nasdaq said.The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) tumbled 512.61 points (6.36 per cent) to 7,539.07 last night, erasing gains for the year and falling to its lowest level since last November.

For the 30 Dow stocks, the losses amounted to $ 2.24 trillion since July 17, when the index hit a record high of 9,337.97 points. On the Nasdaq, dominated by high-tech stocks, the losses amounted to $ 588 billion since its record high set on July 20. The Nasdaq composite, off 20 per cent since its record, suffered its worst point drop ever -- 140.43 points or 8.56 per cent -- bringing it to itslowest level since July last year.