LONDON — World stock markets fell today on recession fears, though European shares regained some of the lost ground after Wall Street posted a better than anticipated performance after the opening bell.

The FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was down 27.11 points, or 0.7 percent, at 4,105.05, having teetered will falling below the 4,000 level earlier.

Germany's DAX was 33.99 points, or 0.8 percent, lower at 4,523.28, while the CAC-40 in France was down 21.03 points, or 0.7 percent, at 3,161.00. Both had been around 2 percent lower earlier in the session before Wall Street opened.

The Dow Jones index of leading U.S. shares was down only 19.60 points, or 0.2 percent, at 8,253.98, markedly better than expectations for a 150 point drop.

"After a couple of bad days, at least we've had a brighter opening on Wall Street," said Richard Hunter, a strategist at Hargreaves Lansdown stockbrokers in London.

The Dow has closed lower in four of the past five sessions amid worries about how long a recession might be. That's driven many retail investors to the sidelines, while big institutional traders like hedge funds keep major stock indexes fluctuating.

The market's mood remains fragile, with concerns about corporate earnings, particularly in the banking sector, never far from mind.

Banks across Europe were particularly badly hit Tuesday by recession fears after Citigroup announced Monday it would cut thousands of jobs, with Barclays PLC down 7.3 percent, HBOS PLC another 8.6 percent, Deutsche Bank AG 5.3 percent and Commerzbank AG 5.4 percent.

In Asia too, banks were badly hit, with Japanese bank Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. down 7 percent, while China Construction Bank fell 6 percent as investors soured on Bank of America's deal to increase its stake in the Chinese company.

Asian markets closed lower in the wake of the Dow's 223 point decline Monday where traders sold heavily on evidence of more economic weakness and Citigroup Inc.'s announcement it would cull 53,000 jobs around the world as it seeks to deal with the impact of the financial crisis.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 stock average fell 194.17 points, or 2.3 percent to 8,328.41, a day after confirmation that Japan, the world's second largest economy, had slipped into a recession. Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index shed 4.5 percent to 13,131.23.

Some hopeful signs emerged with the news that inflation in Britain fell in October for the first time in 14 months largely because of cheaper oil prices.

Official figures showed that the annual rate of the consumer price index measure of inflation dropped to 4.5 percent in the year to October from 5.2 percent in the year to September. Analysts had expected a more modest decline to 4.7 percent.

As a result, the markets are expecting the Bank of England to continue to cut interest rates aggressively over the coming months, with some predicting it to lop off another percentage point of its benchmark rate when it meets again in early December.

A further easing in inflation pressures came out of the U.S. with the news that the Producer Price Index fell 2.8 percent in October, the biggest decline on records that go back more than 60 years.

"It is remarkable that in just a few months fears have switched from inflation to deflation, a testament to how suddenly the global economy's expansion has turned into recession," said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight.

Elsewhere in Asia, the Shanghai Composite index slid 6.3 percent after advancing four straight days. Australia's main index declined 3.6 percent and South Korea's Kospi fell 3.9 percent.

Light, sweet crude for December delivery rose 29 cents to $55.24 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by mid-afternoon in Europe. The contract Monday fell $2.09 to settle at $54.95, the lowest since January 2007. Prices have fallen about 62 percent since reaching a record $147.27 in mid-July.

In currencies, the dollar was up 0.7 percent at 97.01 yen, while the euro was 0.1 percent weaker at $1.2639.