RBS drops 25 percent in London

European equities markets saw another day of steep declines Friday, to end a week which saw over $4 trillion in value disappear from equities markets worldwide.

In London, the FTSE 100 was down 8.85 percent to 3,932.06, closing below 4,000 for the first time in five years, while the FTSE 250 dropped 5.59 percent to 6,778.31.

Banks were hard-hit, with Barclays Bank (LSE: BARC; NYSE: BCS; TYO: 8642) down 14.17 percent as HBOS (LSE: HBOS) fell 19.09 percent and Royal Bank of Scotland (LSE: RBS; NYSE: RBS PRM) dropped 25.31 percent.

The only gainer on the 100 was media company Thomson Reuters (LSE: TRIL; NYSE: TRI; NAS: TRIN; TSX: TRI), which added 0.09 percent on the session.

Elsewhere in the region, the FTSE Eurofirst 300 was down 7.83 percent to 849.29 while the Dax fell 7.01 percent to 4,544.31, the CAC-40 was 7.73 percent lower to 3,176.49 and the IBEX dropped 9.14 percent to 8,997.7.

Trade in Iceland was closed through Monday, while Russian and Ukranian exchanges are closed until further notice.

While Italian markets remained open, short-sales on all stocks were banned by regulators.

Equities markets continued their declines in the Asia-Pacific region.

Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 saw its biggest weekly decline since records began to be kept in 1949 as it dropped 24 percent over the week, while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng lost 16 percent on the week, its biggest weekly drop in over ten years, while in Thailand, the SET Index was closed for 30 minutes after it declined by 10 percent during the session.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei was down 9.62 percent to 8,276.43 while the Topix index fell 7.1 percent to 840.86 and the Mothers market dropped 6.5 percent to 269.41.

Among real estate developers in Tokyo, Mitsui Fudosan (TYO: 8801; NAS: MDSFF) was down 6.8 percent and Mitsubishi Estate (TYO: 8802) dropped 8.1 percent after another real estate investment trust filed for bankruptcy, while the insurance sector was also down on a bankruptcy filing in the sector.

The Shanghai Composite was down 3.57 percent to 2,000.57 while the Kospi fell 4.13 percent to 1,241.47, the Sensex was 7.07 percent lower to 10,527.85, the Hang Seng was down 7.19 percent to 14,796.87, and the Straits Times Index dropped 7.34 percent to 1,948.33.

In Australia, the Sydney Ordinaries fell 8.2 percent to 3,939.5 while the S&P/ASX200 dropped 8.34 percent to 3,960.7 on the session.

Banks in the region were hit hard.

In Tokyo, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial (TYO: 8316) was down 8.2 percent and Mitsubishi UFJ (TYO: 8306; NYSE: MTU) fell 8.5 percent, while in Australia Macquarie Group (ASX: MQG) was 9.5 percent lower and National Australia Bank (ASX: NAB) dropped 12 percent.

India’s ICICI Bank (BSE: ICICIBC) plummeted 17 percent even though an official at the bank said it has enough capital and not much exposure to overseas loans and investments.

The oil sector and miners also saw substantial declines all over the region, and shippers dropped on declines in shipping rates for commodities.

Wall Street was down sharply again in early afternoon trade, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up from earlier lows after it fell by almost 700 points at the beginning of the session.

The Dow was down 4.8 percent to 8,167.65 at around 1: 30 p.m. in New York, while the Nasdaq Composite had fallen 4.47 percent to 1,571.61 and the S&P 500 had dropped 5.28 percent to 861.86, on its way to its eighth consecutive losing session in a row and its worst week in history.

The oil sector saw declines on lower crude oil prices as Chevron (NYSE: CVX) fell 8.61 percent and ExxonMobil (NYSE: XOM) dropped 11.87 percent.

Troubled insurer American International Group (NYSE: AIG) was down 17.99 percent.

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