By Darren Boey
Oct. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Indonesia halted stock-market trading for a second full day, while exchanges in Russia and Ukraine were suspended indefinitely as the credit crisis extended a plunge in global equities.
Iceland's market remains shut for the second day, part of a suspension that will last through Oct. 13. A 10 percent decline in Thailand's benchmark index triggered a 30-minute halt.
``We are probably close to the point of maximum pessimism,'' said Simon Rudolph, a fund manager at the Hong Kong unit of Franklin Templeton Investments, which manages $507.2 billion of assets. ``We are seeing a lot of paralysis, people not knowing what to do, people not wanting to invest.''
Shares tumbled in Europe and Asia today as the credit freeze deepened, worsening the outlook for the global economy. Japan's Nikkei 225 Stock Average slumped 9.6 percent, the most since the October 1987 stock-market crash. The MSCI World Index dropped 4 percent as of 1:50 p.m. in London, taking its slide this month to 22 percent.
Investments on U.S. mortgage-related securities have caused $591 billion of losses at the world's biggest financial institutions and led to the collapses of Bear Stearns Cos. and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The crisis prompted the U.S. government to take control of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and American International Group Inc.
Market Regulators
Indonesia's exchange first halted trading Oct. 8 after the benchmark index plunged 10 percent, before shutting down the bourse yesterday. Trading in Indonesia will ``hopefully'' resume Oct. 13, bourse President Erry Firmansyah said today.
``Several measures still need time to be prepared today and over the weekend before we're ready to open our market,'' said Ahmad Fuad Rahmany, chairman of the country's Capital Market and Financial Institution Supervisory Agency.
Russia's Micex and RTS stock exchanges delayed the opening of trading today on orders of the market regulator. As of 3 p.m. Moscow time it was unclear when trading will start, Alexei Gerasyuk, spokesman for Micex, said in a telephone interview. The RTS won't resume stock trading until ``further notice,'' the bourse wrote in an e-mailed statement.
Vienna's bourse reopened after earlier suspending trading until 12 p.m. local time. The ATX Index fell 11 percent.
Thailand's SET Index fell as much as 10 percent today, triggering the first 30-minute trading halt in almost two years.
There's no official plan to suspend trading for the full day because it will ``scare off investors,'' Pakorn Malakul Na Ayudhya, the bourse's chairman, told reporters this morning.
``The sell-off won't probably grind to a halt yet,'' said Sukkawat Prasurtying, chief investment officer at Manulife Asset Management Co. in Bangkok, who oversees about $150 million of assets. ``Fundamentals don't mean anything right now.''
To contact the reporter on this story: Darren Boey in Hong Kong at dboey@bloomberg.net.
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