World markets slide on US recession fears

Stocks in the United States and Europe slid for a fourth straight month on Friday, with alarm bells warning of a recession in America ringing louder.
The US dollar has fallen to record lows while oil prices have surged past a high set in 1980.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended down 315.79 points, or 2.51%, at 12,266.39 on Friday. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was down 36.96 points, or 2.70%, at 1,330.72, while the Nasdaq Composite Index closed down 60.09 points, or 2.58% at 2,271.48.
Inflation fears came to the fore in government data, indicating that US consumers were struggling in January to keep ahead of robust price growth, which remained uncomfortably high.
The US dollar lingered near record lows against the euro, Swiss franc and a basket of major currencies, while US crude oil settled down 75 cents a barrel after hitting a record $US103.05 earlier in the session.
Gold set a historic record on its march to $US1,000 an ounce, hitting $US975.90 an ounce.
Britain, Europe fall
Britain's top share index fell 1.36% in a global sell-off on Friday, with banks leading the fall. The FTSE 100 ended down 81.4 points at 5,884.3, after losing 110.8 points on Thursday. The market has shed 0.1% in February and nearly 9% since the start of the year.
European shares fell for a third day on Friday as fears of a recession in the US hit the banking sector. Barclays fell 4.7%, BNP Paribas lost 3% and Swiss bank UBS, the biggest victim of the credit crisis among major European banks, was down 3.7%.
The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares fell 1.4% to 1,315.28, bringing losses for February to more than 1% and marking the fourth consecutive monthly decline.
In Germany, the DAX index ended at 6,748.13 points, down 114.39 or 1.67% on the day and shedding 58.16 points over the week. France's CAC-40 index closed at 4,790.66 points, down 74.57 or 1.53% and losing 33.89 points since last weekend.
The Swiss market index closed at 7,533.86 points, down 129.09 or 1.68% but rose 79.11 points on the week. In Italy, the All Share Mibtel index closed at 25,687 points, down 350 or 1.34%, winning 60 points over the week.
Asian markets down
In Japan, the Nikkei average fell 2.32% to post a one-week closing low, with Sony and other exporters taking a beating on a clouded earnings outlook after the US dollar touched a three-year low against the yen. The index fell 322.49 points to end at 13,603.02, gaining 102.56 points since last Friday.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index ended down 260.02 points at 24,331.67, but rose 1026.63 points over the week and was up 3.7% for the month.
NZ market bucks trend
The New Zealand share market ended trading up slightly on Friday, with the NZX 50 index three points higher to 3582.
Air New Zealand was down 9 cents to $1.67 after posting its half-year result, which was up 58%.
Telecom was down 4c to $3.87 after the Government asked it to revise aspects of its operational separation plan. Fletcher Building was down 17c to $9.59.
Australian market closes lower
The Australian share market closed lower for its second consecutive day on Friday as the main banks and other stocks in the financial services sector fell heavily.
The S&P/ASX200 index was down 79.1 points to 5572.1, while the All Ordinaries index fell 71.4 points to 5,674.7.
On the Sydney Futures Exchange, the March share price index futures contract was 71 points lower at 5,573 on a volume of 27,156 contracts.
Turnover was 1.70 billion shares worth $A8.51 billion.