Market carnage sideswipes Dubai and Abu Dhabi bourses

Dubai: The mayhem continued on local and regional markets with investors on a massive panic selling spree amid fears of the global credit crisis worsening and stalling economic growth.

Analysts and traders expect the markets to bounce back on the back of central banks around the world slashing interest rates, though early trading in the United States and Europe belied such hopes.

The Dow Jones was down 1.01 per cent and the London FTSE 100 declined 5.32 per cent at 7.30pm UAE time.

At home, Dubai and Abu Dhabi bourses feel sharply, the worst this week, plunging 8.43 per cent to 3,085.02 and 6.43 per cent to 3,176.94 respectively. Qatar fell 8.75 per cent, Bahrain 2.70 per cent and Saudi Arabia pared the early day's heavy losses to close just 1.49 per cent down.

The Fed, European Central Bank, Bank of England, Bank of China, and Canadian, Swiss and Swedish Banks cut interest rates in an effort to stem the liquidity crisis. The UAE Central Bank followed the Fed, and announced a repo rate cut of 50 basis points, but it came too late in the day to help rescue the declining markets.

Oil, though was down more than $4 early in the day, then recovered to close at $87.

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