Australian shares closed down 5 per cent amidst global economic panic.
The Australian share market plunged 5 per cent today, as the dollar hit a new five-year low.
Fear of a global recession has seized markets, with big falls across the major indices overnight.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged 5 per cent and today the local All Ordinaries index fell by the same margin. It was down 228.1 points at 4369.8.
After hitting a fresh three-year low, the ASX 200 closed 231 points lower at 4,388.
CommSec's Savanth Sebastian says there are growing concerns about the ability of emerging economies to withstand the financial crisis.
The fact that we saw the Indonesian market fall over 10 per cent and actually close trading for the day really had a significant impact on the rest of Asia," he said.
The miners have been hard hit, with Fortescue Metals Group down more than 14-per-cent.
The local currency, meanwhile, has dived more than three US cents in less than an hour to a five-year low.
About 4:45pm AEDT it was buying 67.65 US cents.
Asian markets suffer
Stocks around Asia have also suffered sharp falls.
Japanese share prices plunged 9.38 per cent, the biggest loss since the 1987 "Black Monday" crash, as panic-selling erupted over the global financial crisis.
Markets in Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea were all down by about 5 per cent.
In Indonesia, a 10 per cent fall in share prices prompted officials to suspend market trading.
The main index in South-East Asia's largest economy nose-dived in response to sharp falls on Wall Street overnight before trading was suspended for an "indefinite period".
Indonesia's stock market was never suspended during 1997's Asian financial crisis.
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