London - Asian and European stocks tumbled on Thursday on mounting anxiety over a debt default request by Dubai and tighter lending conditions in China, analysts said.
In morning European trade, Frankfurt dived 1.90% to 5,692.80 points, London lost 1.81% to 5,267.44 points and Paris plunged 2.09% to 3,729.85 points.
In Asia, Beijing nosedived 3.62%, Tokyo fell 0.62% and Hong Kong closed 1.78% lower. Chinese shares were hit by the prospect of tighter banking rules and worries about monetary policy next year.
New York markets will remain closed on Thursday for the Thanksgiving Day holiday in the United States.
"We have two major factors weighing on equities and other risk markets: Dubai's call for a moratorium on its debt repayment to May and more stringent capital adequacy requirements for Chinese banks - but Dubai is bigger," David Morrison, an analyst at financial betting firm GFT, said.
The government of Dubai shocked financial markets on Wednesday when it said it would ask creditors of its Dubai World conglomerate for a debt moratorium of at least six months.
The Dubai government announced that it would revamp the Dubai World group and wanted its lenders to extend its maturing debt until at least May 2010.
Dubai added that it had raised $5bn in a new bonds issue aimed at helping meet its debt obligations.
In reaction, international ratings agency Standard & Poor's said the development could be considered a default and downgraded a raft of Dubai government entities including Dubai World.
"The rating actions are the result of the announcement on November 25 of the restructuring of the debt obligations of Dubai World and its subsidiary, (construction group) Nakheel," S and P said in a statement.
"In our view, such a restructuring may be considered a default under our default criteria, and represents the failure of the Dubai government to provide timely financial support to a core government-related entity."
Morrison said the development had spooked investors.
"Dubai has consistently said that there were no issues when asked straight forward questions.
"It has delayed to within three weeks of the debt becoming due and it has timed the announcement ahead of a holiday. It raises concern for the rest of the (Middle East) region.
"It has also hurt Asia as they are major investors in the region."
Morrison added: "If they had given the debt markets more warning, then there would be less of a panic now."
Barclays Capital analyst Paul Robinson warned that the issue of Dubai could contribute towards a "serious" pullback in global stock markets.
"What looked like only a bump in the road on Tuesday shows the hallmarks of a potentially more serious pullback ... as dealers react to a tightening in bank lending conditions in China and rising default fears in the Middle East," said Robinson.
Elsewhere on Thursday, gold soared to a record high of $1,195.13 an ounce following a purchase of IMF gold by Sri Lanka's central bank, traders said.
The precious metal has won support in recent weeks from inflationary fears, the weak US currency and increasing moves by central banks to diversify assets into gold.
New York stocks had meanwhile risen slightly on Wednesday after a series of economic reports led by better-than-expected data on jobless claims kept the mood positive ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.
- AFP