More Turbulence On FTSE But Dow Jones Rises
The London stock market has suffered more volatility with £26bn wiped off the value of the FTSE 100 index of leading UK shares.
But the United States had a better day, with the Dow Jones up 3.95% at 16,285 after big falls in the previous session.
The Footsie ended down 1.7% at 5979.20 amid continued uncertainty among investors about the faltering Chinese economy.
Many of Tuesday's gains, when the index clawed back £46bn, were lost on Wednesday.
On so-called 'Black Monday', its value fell by around £74bn in what was its biggest daily drop since 2009.
Germany's Dax and France's Cac 40 were also down by around 1% on Wednesday.
Recent falls have seen the FTSE 100 fall into "correction" territory - it is more than 10% off its all-time closing high of 7,104 in April.
Global markets have been rocked in recent weeks by the slowdown in China, the world's second biggest economy, and the depreciation of its currency, the yuan.
In London, mining giants were at the heart of the volatility, seeing both falls and climbs during the day.
They have been badly hit by the slowdown in China and its impact on commodity prices.
Chinese stocks remain highly volatile as there are doubts about whether cuts to interest rates will stabilise the economy and stock markets.
Key share indexes in China rallied earlier in the day but were then hit by waves of selling with investors worried that more support was needed from the Government and the central bank.
Following a near 20% plunge in stock prices in three days, the People's Bank of China cut interest rates late on Tuesday.
After the close, the People's Bank of China injected 140bn yuan (£14bn) into interbank money markets via its short-term liquidity operations, the result of which is expected to boost domestic equity markets when they reopen.
It also lowered the amount of reserves that banks must hold in a move that some economists said was long overdue.
After considerable volatility, the Shanghai Composite Index closed down 1.3%. Japan's Nikkei however was buoyant, closing up 3.2%, while Australia rose 0.7%.
