After the US House of Representatives voted out a $700 billion bailout plan to rescue the troubled Wall Street financial institutions, the markets across the world have started their trades down. On Wall Street, the Dow Jones Industrial Average registered its worst fall in history of 777.68 points to 10,365.45.
Taking cue from there, the Tokyo's Nikkei 225 Average was down 4.6% at 11,199.07 in the morning session. Earlier in the day, it had fallen to as low as 11,160.83, the deepest fall in three years.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index tumbled 5.3% to 16,927.75 in the early minutes.
Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index sank 3.8% to 4,624.20 and New Zealand's NZX 50 index gave up 4.1% to 3,058.72, while South Korea's Kospi fell 3.3% to 1,408.32.
Singapore's Straits Times Index dropped 4.7% to 2,250.49, while Taiwan's Taiex slumped 6.1% to 5,566.73 as trading resumed in Taipei after Monday's holiday.
This is an indication of how things will turn out for Indian markets. On Monday, the Sensex fell to a new year-low of 12,402 before recovering to close at 12,595. The Nifty closed at 3,850, down 3.4 per cent, or 135 points.
Brace up for the next biggest collapse.