Asian stock markets dived today and London fell by 80 points as another wave of fear over a US recession hit markets.

Uncertainty was again fed into Asian markets after Wall Street closed down 171 points on Friday.

By 8.19am London's FTSE 100 was down 93 at 5776 with banks, oil stocks and miners leading the way.

The French stock market opened with a fall of 1.78 per cent on the CAC index to 4,791.50 points, with SocGen falling further after Citigroup said that its reputation from the rogue trading scandal would be damaged for years to come. Meanwhile Germany's DAX index opened down one per cent.

In London, Shire was one of the biggest fallers, down 4 per cent at 950p as worries about slow sales of its Vyvanse hyperactivity drug in the US continued to weigh. Tullow Oil was another strong faller as the price of oil fell by more than a dollar, also hit by worries about slowing demand from the US.

Anglo American lost 3 per cent to £25.10 on fears over its production of gold and platinum as South Africa's power crisis continues.

Xstrata, the copper miner, was one of the few that bucked the trend, up 1 per cent at £34.43 as it announced a 28 per cent increase in the size of its copper resource at its main mine in Chile. It is also buoyed by talk that Vale of Brazil is pushing ahead with a bid despite reservations from the Brazilian Government.

Heavy snows in China also cut industrial demand there, weighing on Asian markets.

The Shanghai A-share Index fell 359.87 points or 7.20 pct to 4,637.81 and the Shenzhen A-share Index was down 104.01 points or 6.89 pct at 1,405.64.

Japan's Nikkei index closed down nearly 4 per cent at 13,087.91, hurt by weaker profits from the world's second largest steel maker Nippon Steel, which blamed rising raw material prices and fears of declining exports to the US. The index ended up losing nearly all the gains it made at the end of last week

The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index closed down 342.39 points or 7.19 per cent at 4,419.29, the lowest level in more than five months.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index closed down 5 per cent.

Indian shares plunged heavily when they opened, the Sensex index fell 837 points of 4.6 per cent to 17524 in early trading.

The Dow Jones was up 89 points or 0.73 per cent to 12296 points as Wall Street anticipated a futher cut to interest rates this week by the Federal Reserve.

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