Dow Jones hits four-year low as markets dive

(CNN) -- The Dow Jones on Monday fell below 10,000 points for the first time since 2004 as U.S. stocks followed Europe and Asia with heavy losses after government bank bailouts on both sides of the Atlantic failed to stem slowdown fears.

The index was hovering above the 9,800 mark as a 4.8 percent drop added to days of losses amid unrelenting financial turmoil.

London's FTSE 100, Germany's Dax France's CAC all saw significant drops with indexes falling several percentage points.

The declines were led by the banking industry, with the mining and oil industries also suffering drops. Troubled bank HBOS's share price dropped 13.4 percent, while the Royal Bank of Scotland fell 14.6 percent.

In Russia, trading in shares was suspended after the RTS stock index fell more than 15 percent. Iceland's exchange was also closed while the government rushed to draft a plan to deal with the financial turmoil's impact on its over-leveraged banking sector.

The slump followed a weekend in which Germany's private financial sector promised to put up an additional €15 billion ($20.3 billion), in addition to the €35 billion already pledged, to help shore up Hypo Real Estate bank, the nation's Finance Ministry said Sunday.  Watch more about the growing chaos »

In France, BNP Paribas committed to taking a 75-percent stake in troubled European bank Fortis NV, and Sweden and Denmark followed Ireland and Britain in raising the amount of savers' deposits guaranteed by the government.