EU Stocks Open Sharply lower

EU stocks have started the day sharply lower Thursday, taking their lead from Asia and the US.

The Nikkei 225 Average dropped as much as 10.4% in mid-morning Tokyo trading, before recovering slightly, as shares across the board were slammed after Wall Street stocks dived overnight.

In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index dropped 7.6% to 14,787.35, whilst Australia's S&P/ASX 200 index lost 6.9% to 4,004.80.

At 8.15am the U.K. FTSE 100 index was down 5.25% at 3,865.35, the German DAX 30 index down 4.9% at 4,623.57 and the French CAC-40 index down 5.0% at 3,210.91.

As is becoming the norm, banks were amongst the biggest losers. In Germany Deutsche Bank down 8.3%, whilst in France Credit Suisse sank 6.4 percent to 42.96 francs after reporting a loss of 1.3 billion francs in the three months ending Sept. 30.