Markets in Asia and the Pacific tumbled again on Friday, as investor panic spread over fears of a global recession.
New Zealand's sharemaket ended the day down almost 5%, bringing losses for the past fortnight to 12%.
The NZX 50 fell 139 points, or 4.8%, to 2805 on turnover of $89 million.
The dollar also fell against most major currencies. At 5.20pm, it was trading at at 59.10 US, 89.75 Australian, 34.86 pence, 58.34 yen, and 0.4364 euro.
The Trade Weighted Index stood at 59.06.
The Australian share market ended a horror week, down more than 8% in a session that wiped $A106 billion from the value of stocks.
The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 360.2 points, or 8.34%, at 3,960.7, which was a record fall since the index was created in 1993.
The broader All Ordinaries index sunk 351.9 points, or 8.2%, to 3,939.5 - its biggest fall since 20 October 1987 when it plummeted almost 25%.
Wall St just about kept its head above water on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average suffering modest losses of 1.49%.
It followed a dive on Thursday when the Dow Jones plunged 7.33% to end at 8,579.19, its first close below 9,000 since 2003.
On Friday, the Industrial Average saw early losses of as much as 700 points before ending down 128 points at 8,451.19. The tech-heavy Nasdaq managed a slim gain of 4.39 points or 0.27%.
In Japan, the Nikkei stock index plunged 9.62%, the biggest loss since "Black Monday" in October 1987 as market panic grew. It was the third biggest loss ever for the index, which has lost more than 24% over the past week.
European markets slide
European shares tumbled to their lowest close in more than five years on Friday amid panic-selling which hit financials particularly hard on fears that frozen credit markets may spark a global recession.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares lost 7.6%to finish at 851.23 points -- its lowest close since July 2003.
The pan-European benchmark fell as much as 9.9% earlier in the session and had its worst week on record with a drop of 22%.
"The new lows we've seen in stock markets this week are the result of panic selling," said Joost van Leenders, asset allocation specialist at Fortis Investments.
The battered London Stock Exchange, which has just suffered its worst week since the 1987 stock market crash, will be on high alert next week for signs that Britain could fall into recession in the fourth quarter.
The FTSE 100 index of leading shares closed on Friday at 3,932.06 points, a 21.05% plunge from the end of trading on October 3, seven days earlier.
Economists are warning that the exchange could eventually fall below 3,300 points.
In Paris the CAC 40 lost 7.73 per cent to finish at 3,176.49, while the Frankfurt Dax shed 7.01 per cent to end the week at 4,544.31.
Elsewhere there were declines of 7.14 per cent in Milan, 8.48 per cent in Amsterdam and 9.14 per cent in Madrid.
The DJ Stoxx European bank index fell 10.4%, with Royal Bank of Scotland down more than 25%, Credit Suisse
and Deutsche Bank dropping over 16% each, Barclays falling more than 14% and Societe Generale shedding 13%.
Insurance shares lost 9% as Aegon fell almost 17%, Legal & General 16%, Old Mutual and ING Groep both nearly 13%, and Swiss Life and Swiss Re 12.5% each.
"There is simply panic and hopelessness. This is a bubble in reverse: many market participants feel and believe that the correction is going too far, but no one has the strength of going against the flow," UniCredit said in a note.
