Hong Kong stocks down 2.38pc in early trading

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In the first few minutes of trading, the benchmark Hang Seng index lost 425.7 points to 17,486.25, after closing below 18,000 on Thursday for the first time in more than two years.

There was a brutal sell-off of US stocks on Thursday, fuelled by the Federal Reserve's warning about the health of the American economy.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down 3.51 percent, while major indexes in Europe, Asia and Latin America commonly suffered losses of around five percent.