There is blood in the regional stock markets today. Most suffered a big single day drop before it recovers some ground in the afternoon.

According to the papers, the worldwide tumble was sparked by China’s plan to clamp down on illegal stock market investments. Chinese stocks slumped the most in a decade the day before, while Europe’s Dow Jones Stoxx 600 Index dropped 3% and emerging markets sank. Russian shares slid from an all-time high; Brazil’s Bovespa Index lost 6.6% over the night.

From the list below, Singapore’s Straits Times Index [STI] is the second ‘worst performing market’ in the region, suffering at one time a 6% drop. In my opinion this was fueled by panic selling by ‘contra players’ who hoped they could pull a fast one but have no money to pay for their stocks.

The STI finally managed to get a grip on itself and rally to close at 3.72% down. Still, it was cold comfort that the other worse performing market is that of the Philippines.

It is a correct long in coming and much awaited, but I suspect this is just the beginning and it isn’t over yet.