MELBOURNE, Oct 10 (Reuters) - Australian shares plunged over 7 percent to their lowest in over three years on Friday as another sharp drop on Wall Street on global recession fears saw investors dump stocks across the board.
Australia''s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 <.AXJO> index was down 320.2 points at 4,000.07 at 0034 GMT, after earlier hitting a low of 3,984.3, taking its losses to about 15 percent so far this week.
"These aremassive, almost unheard of big days down. These plunges are deep and they hurt deeply. People''s nerves are really at the end of their tether," said Lucinda Chan, client adviser at Macquarie.
"The contagion factor is certainly very clear. It''sgoing to be tough for all markets," she said.
Australian companies were vulnerable to economic slowdowns in the emerging economies of China, India and other Asian markets, she said.
"We are an exporting nation and we are a country that does lot of commodities. We are under pressure at the moment," she said.
On Wall Street, The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> shed another 7.3 percent in Thursday trade, closing below 8,600 for the first time since May 2003, and down almost 40percent from its all-time closing high hit exactly one year ago.
New Zealand''s benchmark NZX-50 index <.NZ50> fell 95.3 points , or 3.2 percent, to 2,849.1. So far this year the NZX-50 index has fallen 28 percent.
OZL Price at posting:
$1.08 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
