The price of gold pulled back from earlier big gains to trade up 1.4 per cent at 1,850 dollars an ounce in late European trading. While Europe's premier exchange in London ended the week down about 1 per cent, stocks in Paris, Frankfurt and Zurich slumped about 2 per cent. Leading the European market falls on Friday was another steep drop in Frankfurt's prime DAX index, which tumbled by 3.3 per cent in morning trading before recouping losses as the trading session unfolded. Friday's declines were off the back of even more dramatic falls on Thursday. The DAX's 5.82-per-cent plunge on Thursday translated to the index's worst single-day loss since November 2008. Traders said bargain-hunters and moves by options traders to close positions had helped to spur a modest rally at the start of the week. But as the trading week unfolded and more downbeat economic numbers emerged from both the US and Europe the rally seemed to quickly run out of steam. This also helped to unnerve investors in Asia. Japanese shares fell 2.5 per cent Friday to the lowest level in five months on the back of concerns about the impact on the nation's exporters of the yen. The Japanese currency finished the week by soaring to its highest level against the dollar since the Second World War. At the same time Shanghai's composite index lost 2 per cent, while shares in Singapore shares dropped 3.23 per cent. Indian markets shed 2.4 per cent. The biggest fall, however, was in South Korea where worries about the nation's leading exporters prompted a 6.2-per-cent plunge in the benchmark Kospi index. After declining by more than 2 per cent earlier in the day on concerns that lower growth could hit demand for energy, the oil price also bounced up 0.7 per cent to 83.05 dollars a barrel in late European trading. The signs of a more measured mood prevailing on bourses also spilled over into the currency markets with the euro once again breaching the 1.44-dollar-mark after gaining 0.6 per cent.
