Asian Stock Markets suffer severe recession

Asian Stock Markets suffered massive falls on Friday, with Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slumping almost five percent by the close. Tokyo dived 3.22 percent, hit also by the yen striking a fresh 14-year high point against the dollar, which is bad for Japanese exporters.Shortly after the start of European trading, London's benchmark FTSE 100 index was down 0.36 percent at 5,175.44 points, one day after falling by its sharpest amount since March.Frankfurt's DAX 30 shed 0.56 percent to 5,582.50 points and in Paris the CAC 40 lost 0.51 percent to 3,660.68.The continued widespread selling came as investors headed for the exit door after the Dubai government's investment vehicle Dubai World sought to suspend debt payments for six months, IG Markets analyst Ben Potter said. The government of Dubai rocked financial markets on Wednesday when it said it would ask creditors of its Dubai World conglomerate, which has reported debts of 59 billion dollars (39.3 billion euros), for a debt moratorium of at least six months.