BULLETIN: GLOBAL COLLAPSE Tokyo Stocks Down 9.4%; Moscow, Down 14%, Closes

Japan's Nikkei suffered its worst day since the 1987 stock market crash.

The benchmark Nikkei 225 stock average plunging 9.4 percent -- its biggest drop in 21 years -- to 9,203.32, a five-year low.

Moscow's MICEX stock exchange, where most of Russia's trading takes place, announced it is shutting until Friday after opening with steep losses. The MICEX index dropped more than 14 percent in the first half-hour of trading Wednesday.

By mid-morning London time, the CAC-40 index in France was 229.33 points, or 6.1 percent, lower at 3,502.89, while Germany's DAX was down 323.99, or 6.1 percent, at 5,002.64. The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was 237.22, or 5.2 percent lower, at 4,367.50.

Hong Kong's blue chip Hang Seng index shed 5.2 percent, and India's Sensex sank 4.3 percent. Seoul's Kospi lost 5.8 percent, Taiwan's key index fell 5.8 percent, and Singapore's benchmark tumbled 5.5 percent.

Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX200 closed down 5 percent, wiping out gains Tuesday after the country's central bank cut its key interest rate by a bigger-than-expected 1 percentage point.