Asian and Pacific stock markets pushed lower Monday after having the weekend to digest Friday's passage of a $700 billion bank bailout plan in the United States, reported CNN.
The U.S. Congress passed the bill last week, and President George W. Bush signed it Friday.
Japan's Nikkei Exchange was down 322.35 points, or about 2.95 percent, at 10,615.79 in early afternoon trading Monday, extending Friday's new three-year low.
The Korea Exchange in Seoul, South Korea was off 4.4 percent.
Singapore's Straits Times Index had sloughed off about 3.3 percent and the Shanghai Composite had fallen about 3.5 percent. The Taiwan Weighted was also off 3.5 percent.
The Australian Securities Exchange plunged about 3.3 percent to 4,556.50, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 3.6 percent of its value to 17,047.25.
Wall Street fell on fell on Friday as the three major indices were all down more than a percent. The Dow Jones industrial average fell 157.47 points, 1.5 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500 index lost 1.35 percent and the Nasdaq composite lost 1.48 percent.
Stock markets around the world have endured days of turmoil as a consequence of uncertainty over Washington's response to the credit crisis.
European markets rallied last Friday after Wall Street opened.