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LONDON-European and Asian stock markets fell heavily on Thursday, even after Wall Street had ended higher as major central banks sought to soothe a global credit squeeze caused by the US home-loan collapse.Leading indices in London and Paris were down about 1.50 percent in late morning trade, following falls nearing 3.0 percent in Asia."The decline in global equity markets today underlines the fact that global central bank action cannot rid the market of the current climate of fear and uncertainty that is the root cause of the reluctance of financial institutions to lend to each other," said Derek Halpenny at The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.In a move analysts described as the most concerted effort since the September 11, 2001 terror attacks, the US Federal Reserve and four other central banks said they would make tens of billions of dollars available to cash-starved international banks."While the Fed plan had some positive impact on investor sentiment, it does not seem to be able to solve the fundamental problems of the financial system," said Soichiro Monji, chief strategist at Daiwa SB Investments.The Paris CAC 40 was down 1.65 percent nearing the half-way mark, London's FTSE 100 shed 1.46 percent and in Frankfurt the DAX 30 gave up 0.89 percent.Japanese share prices closed down 2.48 percent on Thursday, while Hong Kong and Chinese equities each shed 2.7 percent.The massive rescue effort by the five central banks to inject fresh money into the global banking system came amid concerns about a widening credit crunch in which commercial banks are curbing lending to peers.The banks' efforts creates a temporary short-term auction system to allow commercial banks another avenue to obtain funding. The first auction of 20 billion dollars will be held Monday by the Fed with an additional 20 billion dollars made available on December 20.The US Federal Reserve, which is working alongside the central banks of the eurozone, Britain, Switzerland and Canada, said the process offered a new way to inject money into the banking system following a series of steps since the credit crisis erupted in August."The central banks are trying to reinject confidence back into the market and they're on the right track but how big is the train wreck? I don't think anybody really knows," Reynolds & Co director Marcus Meuller said.He was speaking from Australia, where share prices fell 0.3 percent on Thursday.Wall Street rode a roller coaster session Wednesday as stocks rallied, then fell, before swinging higher after news of the central banks' coordinated plan.The benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.31 percent, the tech-rich Nasdaq composite advanced 0.71 percent and the broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 0.61 percent.As in the days of Noah....
