BBC

Thursday, 29 March, 2001, 16:19 GMT 17:19 UK

US shares stage fightback

US stock markets are staging a fightback after early losses sent the Nasdaq stock market towards 28 month lows.

The rebound followed sharp dips on Wednesday and at the start of trading on Thursday which had sent global share markets back towards the two year lows hit last week.

After 90 minutes of trading the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average was 0.5% higer at 9,844, well above the low point of 9,308 reached last week.

The technology-stock dominated Nasdaq was 12 points higher at 1,866, after earlier falling to 1,830, which would be its lowest close since November 1998.

The rebound came despite the news that the US economy had grown even slower than previously thought in the last quarter of 2000.

New figures showed that America's GDP rose by just 1% annually in the period between October and December, compared to a growth rate of 5.6% just six months earlier.

Europe hit

Technology companies also pulled European markets lower, before the US fightback sparked a rebound.

London's benchmark FTSE 100 index, which had been down nearly 1.2% with half an hour of trading to go, closed down 0.4% at 5,588.

In Paris and Frankfurt there had been bigger falls before the rally halped the French Cac 40 index close up 0.2%, while the German Dax index was 0.8% higher.

European traders did not get the desired boost from a European Central Bank, which kept interest rates unchanged.

Earlier Asian markets had followed the downward trend sparked by profits warnings from Nortel and Palm on Tuesday evening in New York.

Asian falls

Japan's leading Nikkei index lost more than 5% of its value, plummeting 693 points to 13072.

That was a sharp reverse from the Nikkei's 13% worth of gains over the last six sessions, gains prompted by the Bank of Japan's decision to return to zero interest rates.

A smaller-than-expected rise in industrial output and poor financial results from Hong Kong's internet and telecoms giant PCCW fuelled the falls.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index also fell, losing 168 points to close at 12684.

-- Anonymous, March 29, 2001