HBOS Plc

Yesterday, the Australian share market closed at a fresh three-year low, plummeting 5% as the continuing fallout from the global credit crisis wiped A$56 billion from the value of stocks. The benchmark S&P/ASX-200 share index lost 5% yesterday, the biggest one-day fall for both major stock exchange indices since January 22 this year. RBA has said the Australian economy is slowing faster than originally anticipated. Analysts said the sell-off is totally unemotional. Markets across Asia also slumped with 5-10% drop in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mumbai and Jakarta.

Overnight Wall Street closed more than 5% down on growing fears that the spiralling credit crisis would drag the US economy into a recession. While the global financial crisis deepened, RBA cut the interest rate by a full percentage point, double the amount that had been expected.

The Australia share market has fallen sharply with 3pc in minutes of the start of trading this morning, after Wall St tumbled overnight. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down as much as 3.3%, or 148.5 points, to 4391.9 in early trading.