World stocks return to red despite rate cuts (Jeremy Gaunt)

Created by : Francis Goodwin View profile

Oct. 8, 2008 -- LONDON (Reuters) -- Stock markets remained mired in steep losses on Wednesday, battered by fears about the world's worst financial crisis in nearly 80 years and gaining only temporary relief from globally coordinated interest rate cuts.

Wall Street looked set to open lower, in line with stock markets in Asia and Europe.

Reaction to the cuts -- which came from the U.S. Federal Reserve, European Central Bank, Bank of England and People's Bank of China, among others -- initially led equity investors to trim deep losses on many bourses.

Immediate euphoria dissipated quickly. MSCI's main benchmark index of world stocks, for example, remained near 4-year lows, down 2.7 percent and around where it was when the cuts were announced.

Its emerging market stock counterpart was off 7.4 percent.