LONDON, England (AP) -- Stock markets in Asia fell Thursday, following on another big drop on Wall Street as investors tried to quantify the size of a fallout from the global credit crisis.
Markets in Europe were mixed as interest rates in Britain and Europe went unchanged, though European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said the developments that put price stability at risk will be monitored "very closely.'
Japan's benchmark index sank 2 percent, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong tumbled 3.2 percent. China's benchmark Shanghai Composite Index lost 4.9 percent, its biggest one-day decline in four months. Shares also fell in Australia, India, South Korea and the Philippines.
Declines in Europe were moderate, with France's CAC-40 index down 0.6 percent to 5,649.35. Germany's DAX Index was up 0.3 percent to 7,824.48. The U.K.'s FTSE-100 index gained 0.2 percent to 6,389.00.
Both the European Central Bank and the Bank of England held their benchmark rates steady, as expected, despite some calls to follow the lead of the United States, which cut rates twice in a six-week span.
U.S. stocks were mixed Thursday, a day after the Dow Jones industrial average tumbled more than 350 points, the third precipitous drop in a month.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.03 percent to 13,304.33, while Standard & Poor's 500 Index climbed 0.27 percent to 1,479.60. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.96 percent to 27,22.31.
But Claire Collingwood, a trader at CMC Markets in London, said some U.S. economic news expected later Thursday could affect the market direction.
Investors in Asia, as is usual, reacted strongly to the U.S. decline on Wednesday.
"There has been renewed concern about the U.S. subprime loan problem amid reports that losses at U.S. and European financial institutions are expanding, which increases uncertainty," said Koji Takeuchi, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute in Tokyo.
Jitters have grown since Citigroup Inc. said Sunday it needed to take an additional $8 billion to $11 billion in writedowns. Markets also are skittish about weakness in the U.S. dollar, soaring oil prices and a record loss at General Motors Corp.
Investors fear global markets could repeat a plunge earlier this year, when the subprime problems first came to the attention of the broader market.
In Japan, investors dumped financial and real estate shares such as Mizuho Financial and Mitsubishi Estate. The Nikkei 225 index fell 325.11 points, or 2.02 percent, to 15,771.57 points. A steadily strengthening yen against the dollar also hurt exporters like Toyota Motor Corp. and Sony Corp.
Hong Kong's benchmark Hang Seng index dropped 3.2 percent, to 28,760.2, with property shares falling sharply.
In mainland China, the market was hurt by declines overnight in American Depositary Receipts of large Chinese traded in New York.
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"The sharp decline in ADRs in the U.S. has exerted selling pressure on their counterpart shares listed here," said Chen Huiqin, an analyst at Huatai Securities.
The drop shows how China's still largely insular market is becoming increasingly linked to overseas markets, despite limits on foreign investment in mainland shares and on overseas stock purchases by Chinese.
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