Asian stock markets decline reaches Europe

The collapse of Asian stock markets has affected Europe. The overall index of the Athens Stock Exchange dropped by more than five percent, the Naftemporiki newspaper said. Pan-European STOXX 600 index and London's FTSE 100 declined significantly as well.

The risk of a possible recession in the American economy put powerful pressure on stock markets, and investors are hastily getting rid of their shares. The global sell-off has caused the Greek stock market index to fall to 1,352 points, which is significantly lower than its average level over the past 200 days (1,375 points).

The shares of leading Greek banks and high-capitalization companies were affected most, the publication said.

The fall in key indices of Japanese markets reached the 1987 Black Monday levels. The trend affected other trading platforms in the region. The tightening of monetary policy in Japan is believed to be one of the reasons for the outflow of funds from the US market, which spiralled down and accelerated a decline of the Japanese market, which led to a domino effect on stock markets in other countries of the region.