Stock markets have seen volatile trading as investors weigh the effect of the coronavirus against measures aimed at easing its economic impact.
Share markets across the Asia-Pacific region, including Japan, Australia and India, have experienced major swings.
It followed the Dow and S&P 500 in the US having their biggest one-day declines since 1987.
In recent days authorities around the world have announced emergency measures as they attempt to avoid recession.
On Friday, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) prohibited short selling of a raft of shares in Italian and Spanish firms after major falls in Italian and Spanish indexes on Thursday.
Short selling is speculation that the price of a stock will go down, and if there are more short sellers than buyers, the price will be pushed down.
Firms including football clubs Lazio and Juventus were on the list, as well as luxury car manufacturer Ferrari.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 index has swung back from being down by more than 10% in early trading to be around 6% lower.
Australia’s benchmark ASX 200 saw its biggest trading swing on record as it reversed a loss of 8.1% to end the day 4.4% higher.
Trading in India’s Nifty 50 stock index was halted for 45 minutes on Friday morning after it fell 10% and hit a “circuit-breaker” and bounced back into positive territory once trading resumed.
In afternoon trading the Hang Seng in Hong Kong was down by 2.9%, and China’s Shanghai Composite was 1.2% lower, both off their session lows.
