World stocks fall on scepticism

World stock markets dropped Wednesday, following a steep sell-off on Wall Street, as investors reacted with scepticism to the US government's latest plan to rescue the ailing financial industry with as much as $2 trillion in funding.
Nearly ever major market in Asia retreated, further hurt by new figures showing China's exports plunged 17.5 percent in January -- the sharpest drop in more than a decade. European shares fell in early trade as Credit Suisse reported a massive quarterly loss far worse than expectations.
As in the US, investors across Asian and Europe questioned whether the revamped bailout program, unveiled Tuesday by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, would be enough to absorb the bad assets saddling bank balance sheets and free up the credit markets that govern lending to consumers and businesses.
Geithner said the plan to get trillions of dollars in financing flowing through the world's largest economy was urgently needed as part of the government's effort to stave off "catastrophic failure" of institutions. A centrepiece involves the government teaming with the private sector to buy up to $1 trillion in souring assets from financial firms. A separate lending programme would be expanded to as much as $1 trillion from $200 billion for consumers and businesses.
However, investors complained about they what they viewed as a lack of detail. For example, officials were short on specifics about how exactly the public-private partnership might work, analysts said.
In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng tumbled 341.43 points, or 2.5 percent, to 13,539.21, while South Korea's Kospi lost 8.69, or 0.7 percent, to 1,190.18. Japanese markets were closed for a public holiday.
Elsewhere, benchmarks in Australia and India fell 0.4 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively.
In mainland China, Shanghai's main stock measure sank about 0.2 percent in a choppy session after news of last month's fall in exports, the third straight month of declines.
The collapse in global demand for Chinese textiles, toys and other goods are devastating export-dependent coastal areas. The figures add to the threat of more job losses and increase pressure on Beijing to boost slumping economic growth.
As trading opened in Europe, stocks were down moderately after falling sharply the day before, with benchmarks in Britain, Germany and France off by 0.7 percent or less.
The retreat in Asian and European markets was tame compared to Wall Street's. U.S. markets plummeted overnight as investors soured on the financial rescue.