In just 11 minutes this morning, the All Ordinaries lost 149 points, or some 3.2 per cent of its total value.
The figure represents a figure of around $6.5 billion.
Since then the market has recovered slightly, with All Ords down 126 at 4418.
Today energy stocks have felt most of the pain.
Oil Search is down 10% and Orica has been trading down 5%.
A week ago when Australian markets suffered a similar hit it was the banking and finance sector that wore most of the punishment.
But today, although they are feeling the pain, it’s largely in line with the rest of the market.
10:30 AM
Australia has matched the massacre on Wall St, taking a 150 point drop in the first minutes of trading this morning.
At 10:20am, the All Ordinaries was down 109 points, trading at 4433.
The markets have slightly recovered after taking a 3.27 per cent battering in the first 10.
Banking stocks are feeling most of the pain, along with Australian insurance companies.
At 1016 AEDT, in the financial sector, National Australia Bank had fallen 95 cents, or 3.72 per cent, to $24.60, Commonwealth Bank was down $1.00 to $43.00, ANZ Banking Group had lost 37 cents to $17.68, Westpac had shed 33 cents to $22.17, and its takeover target St George Bank had dropped 47 cents to $28.83.
The big miners also were weaker, with BHP Billiton down 29 cents, or 0.97 per cent, to $29.50, while rival Rio Tinto declined $1.58, or 1.81 per cent, to $82.90.
Wall Street joined in a worldwide cascade of despair on Monday over the financial crisis, driving the Dow Jones Industrial Average to its biggest ever intraday loss.
The catalyst for the selling was investors' growing despair that the credit crisis will take a heavy toll around the world, realising that the Bush administration's $US700 billion rescue plan and steps taken by other governments won't work quickly to unfreeze credit markets.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell as much as 800 points during the session, slipping below the key psychological level of 10,000 for the first time since 2004.
More to come...